Changes
by Mollylyn
Summary: Basically on permanent hiatus, like all my stories. Apologies. Following some life changes of Sam & Jules. Picks up shortly after 'A New Life'. Jam centric, trying to work in everyone else though. Rated T for now, mostly due to some mildly harsh language.
1. The Meeting

AN: Just an idea I've had kicking around, thought I'd throw it out there... First fic in 5 years, hope this doesn't suck.

Takes place a few weeks after _A New Life_ (and therefore may have minor spoilers...)

Jules walked up to the call desk to join Winnie, Raf, and Spike, who were all eying the conference room door, sharing their theories on what was going on behind the closed doors. Jules tilted her head as she noted the closed doors. "What's going on in there?"  
>Spike shook his head. "Not a clue."<br>Winnie turned to fill Jules in. "Boss and Donna pulled Sam in with Commander Halloran, Ed joined them a few minutes later. That was about 10 minutes ago, no one has been in or out since."

"Weird," was all that Jules could manage without seeming too concerned. The possibilities raced through her brain - Donna had been back from her honeymoon for about a month now, something Jules accepted as a sign that she had changed her mind about early retirement. _What would she want with Sam and Boss?_ _Sam. _Oh no, what if Boss's faith had run out? What if he had decided he simply couldn't allow this to go on on his team? What if Sam had told? Would either of them have done such a thing without letting her know first? No. She shook herself out of it and let logic take over. It couldn't have anything to do with that. After all, if she and Sam had been outed further and disciplinary action was being taken she would be in that room too. She calmed down and tuned back in to the conversation.

Spike was proposing some theory involving secret agents, which had Winnie coughing with laughter. Raf gave a laugh but did not offer his own theories - he was still finding his place on team one and wasn't yet sure he wouldn't offend anyone.  
>"Think they'll be in there all day?" Spike whined. Jules opened her mouth to retort but was cut off - the alarm ran out and Winnie announced a hot call, beckoning team one to gear up. Conference room doors opened and the rest of their team joined them on route to their trucks.<p>

Jules met up with Sam as they went through the stock room loading up the necessary equipment. "What was that about?" She could tell Sam wanted to respond with none of your business out of some strange sort of habit but that look quickly faded from his face, and was replaced with one she wasn't sure she recognized. "Don't worry about it. I'll tell you later," he said quickly, grabbing his backpack and leading the way out to the garage.


	2. Long days

A/N: Somewhat of a filler chapter... My apologies, still writing though so hopefully chapter 3 will be ready soon and will have some actual juice to it.

A cut and dried 'did what they had to do' day for team one, ending in a shot from Raf. He had only been acting as a lookout on the off chance the subject attempted to make a run for it, and ultimately had to take the shot to protect the hostage. It wasn't his first lethal but the team could tell he wasn't doing so hot. Ed and Sam took it on themselves once again to look after him. The three headed out to see if they could catch the end of the game at the nearest sports bar, while Jules, Spike, and Greg headed to their respective vehicles.

Dying to know what had gone on in the conference room that morning, but, not wanting to draw suspicion Jules managed to wait until she got home to text Sam to see if he was still planning on coming over. Not wanting to be 'that girl' and wait by the phone all night for his response she left her phone in the living room and went to the kitchen to find some dinner. She scoured her cupboards and freezer, then decided she would channel Sam Braddock for the night and just order herself a pizza. He'd razz her for days if he knew she did that - Jules was more interested in cooking than ordering in, and had commented on Sam's lack of culinary abilities before. But tonight she didn't care what he thought - it had been a long ass day and all she wanted to do was sit on her couch and absorb grease. She had recently realized she actually did miss him when he wasn't there, even just for the small things. After devouring far too much pizza for her own good she found herself cold and alone, and resorted to bringing the duvet off her bed downstairs to the couch. She glanced at her phone, only to find no reply from Sam. Not yet wanting to sleep she flipped through channels until she found an old eighties movie to watch. She'd seen it many times before, mostly in bits and pieces at a time, and still had no idea what it was called. Didn't matter though, there was something comforting about the awful hair and tacky clothes. Once again she wouldn't finish the movie - she felt it coming on but couldn't fight it, and no maybe text from Sam was going to stop it. Jules Callaghan was asleep on the couch.

Sam took Ed up on a ride home, and it was then that he realized he had missed a text. He read it discretely in the car and waited until he reached his building's elevator to reply. He figured a phone call might go over better than a text at this point, and found Jules' number in contacts. No answer, phone rang until it went to voicemail. He left a quick message blaming Ed for keeping him out past his bedtime and said he'd make it up to her tomorrow. Truthfully he didn't blame Ed at all. Quite frankly he was glad he didn't have to see Jules tonight. He knew she'd be pestering him for answers on the morning's meeting and he wasn't ready to have that conversation, least of all with her. He needed the night to himself, to think, to sleep without icy feet attacking him in the wee hours of the morning.

Jules awoke to the sound of her own snoring, a fact that she would never admit to Sam since she had previously denied his claims that she snored like a boat. _Sam _she thought and looked at the time. _4:30. _Time to get up for work. Guess he didn't come over after all she thought, picking up her phone. She checked the message and deleted it immediately - not because it bothered her, but because she had gotten used to hiding and that included doing things like deleting voicemails and texts ASAP in case someone thought it would be fun to play with her phone (Ed had never been too shy to answer calls for her, calling himself 'Edward, Jules' personal assistant').

The next three days were a mess. One call after another, each lasting an irritatingly long time. For some reason all the bad crap was going down all at the same time, leaving the members of Team One minimal sleep time after shift before they were called in again. Desperate for sleep each time Jules still hadn't had the chance to ask Sam what was going on. He was glad for that - glad that in between hellish nightmares of work days he could sleep in her bed in peace without her pleading with him to let her in on the details. _It wasn't a bedtime conversation_ he justified.


	3. Burned

The smell was the first thing she noticed as she began to stir out of her death like sleep. '_Burning?_…_Sam must be cooking' _ she thought to herself, and rolled over. Not quite ready to face the daylight she opened one eye to check the time on her phone. Wait, not her phone, this is Sam's phone. _Dear god how did I get all the way over here?_ Confusion about their sleeping arrangements wore off fast and she dropped the phone back on the night stand and began to doze off again.

The next time she awoke it was to Sam, crouching beside her bed, offering her some half burnt pancakes. They were dark brown from being cooked too long, but not quite black like last time. She was actually impressed - he was improving. "Breakfast?" he offered, holding a plate out towards her. She didn't usually like to eat in her room, but today he figured he might be able to get away with it.

"Sleep," she mumbled, and eyed the pancakes a few seconds more before closing her eyes again.

Sam set the plate on the floor and sat down beside the bed near where her head was what he considered dangerously close to the edge. "Jules" he whispered, playing with her hair the way he did when he didn't want to wake her too quickly. "Its past noon, you've got day shifts all this week you're going to need to sleep at a decent time tonight."

She groaned, unimpressed with his use of logic. "But what if I want to stay in bed all day…" she grunted, without opening her eyes.

"Hmm as good as that sounds…I was going to fill you in on what happened with that whole conference room thing today." He knew he'd gotten her attention as she raised an eyebrow. Still no eyes open. "You know how Donna was going to take her package and leave team 3? Well she didn't but she has decided she doesn't want to be sergeant anymore."

"Oh." Jules mumbled, losing interest.

Sam looked at her still sleeping face and continued. "Anyways so Donna's stepping down and so Team 3 needs a new sergeant. And a couple weeks ago I applied to be considered for such things as openings or promotions within the SRU."

"Thats nice…" Jules moaned. She was more asleep than he thought.

He moved from the floor and sat beside her on the bed. He continued to play with her hair, and used the other hand to stroke her arm. "Jules I'm trying to have a conversation with you here so anytime you want to start listening that would be great."

She knew he was getting annoyed so she set out to prove to him that she had heard him before. "Donna is stepping down. Team 3 is screwed. You applied for promotion. Good for you."

This was getting ridiculous. Sam picked Jules up and made her sit up. "Jules they offered me Donna's job. They asked me to be Sergeant."

Her eyes finally opened. Unsure of what to say in reply she played dumb. "What are you going to do?" she asked, not wanting to sound like she had any vested interest in what his answer was.

"I took it. I'll be on team 3 when we go back to work on Monday. Boss and Ed are already seeking out applications for the empty spot on the team."

Jules just sat and stared. He couldn't be serious. Was he really leaving team one? Why would he do that? She avoided the idea that that decision had anything to do with her. She decided she should say something. "Congratulations" she managed as she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. "You need somewhere where you won't have to stand aside while someone else leads - you'll be great."

Sam looked slightly confused. "Yeah well there are other benefits too you know…" Did she really have no idea what this meant? That they could be together together? LIke, for real? Go out in public on a date together together? "I love you Jules."

Jules snapped out of her stunned state and gave him a serious look. "Please god tell me you didn't just do this so we don't have to sneak around. Tell me you did this because its a great career opportunity and not just because you want to be able to tell people about us."

He was caught way off guard. Why was she flipping out? Barely over a month ago she had been the one to bring up hypothetical honeymoon plans, what reason did she have to panic now? "You're kidding me, right? Jules… I… it… its both reasons. I get to run an SRU team and I get to stop lying all the time about why I 'haven't been on a date in forever'… I thought you'd be happy too…"

"I am… i just…" They both sat awaiting her response but were interrupted by the buzzing of their phones.

"Great, bomb call, all available officers to HQ."


	4. The Call

The SRU was packed with people - every team who wasn't already out on a call had been called in. Sam and Jules exchanged 'oh shit' glances and knew their awkward conversation was going to have to wait. Sergeant Parker waved them both over. "Suit up guys - we're briefing on the fly today." That was all he needed to say and they were off to their locker rooms to get dressed, and less than 5 minutes later their trucks were pulling out of HQ.

"Alright Team One here's what we've got," Winnie's voice echoed over their radios. "Anonymous caller reporting 6 bombs in high traffic areas around the city. Mostly tourist attractions but also city hall. That's where you guys are going."

Something sunk in Jules' stomach. Last time they had a call at City Hall she… well, it wasn't a stellar day to say the least. She glanced at Ed, who gave her a knowing look before Winnie continued on.

"Building security has reported 3 suspicious packages on the main level."

The Boss took over now. "Alright so priorities - Spike, I want you on those packages - we need to know what, if anything we're dealing with."

Raf looked confused, "If anything?"

"We haven't been able to confirm anything yet. This could still be a false alarm."

Ed took over. "We also need to clear the building of any other potential bombs. Raf and Sam you're Bravo - take the west side of the building, Jules you're with me, we'll take east."

"I'll run intel from the ground, mobile command centre is already on it's way," Sarge added in.

Jules rushed into the command truck to join Sarge and Spike, Ed following close behind her. She was trying to remember how things had gotten to this point. She knew she and Ed found nothing on their sweep, and that Sam and Raf had reported the same and said they were on their way out. Then everything got all turned around and there was a thud on the speaker in her ear and they had lost contact with Raf and Sam.

"What the hell just happened?" Ed demanded.

"Not a clue. Comms are still active, but no one has been responding," Spike reported, without taking his eyes off the monitors he was busy scanning for some indication of what was going on. "I'm going to get into the building's security system - cameras don't record sound but I'm told theres also an intercom system that looks fairly easy to tap into." He knew no one cared, all they wanted was to know what to do next. "Audio is up, give me another 30 seconds and I'll have visual for you too."

The four stood in silence as they tried to determine what was going on from the sound coming out of the speakers. "Pacing," Jules said, almost for her own benefit. In her experience pacing wasn't an overly good sign. It meant someone was stuck; hesitant; frustrated that things hadn't gone their way. Then they heard a familiar voice:

_"Look, I'm not sure what's going on here but I'm sure we can find a way…"_

_"SILENCE!" a man's voice demanded and the pacing stopped._

"Thats Sam," Ed pointed out, blatantly stating the obvious.

"Video is up," Spike announced, directing his teammates' attention to the monitors in front of him. The could see Sam, disarmed and cornered, staring down the business end of a handgun, held by a man not much older than himself. Then there was Raf, unconscious just feet away from Sam. He looked like he had taken a decent blow to the head, but they couldn't be sure. "That's not good."

Turning their attention one at a time to the man holding the gun they realized they may have bigger problems - he was sitting on a bomb, the detonator in his quivering hand.

Jules turned to Parker, looking for direction. "Boss? What's the plan here?"

He took a deep breath. "We let Sam try to talk him down, though that may be a challenge considering we can't get any intel to him." He pointed at the ear piece dangling from Sam's vest.

Spike nodded, "That would explain the lack of response. He can't exactly pop it back on with a gun pointed at him."

Parker continued. "Ok so we give Sam a chance but if he doesn't get some kind of response soon…Spike that phone on the wall there - "

"Yeah no problem I can dial you in."

"Ok I'll dial in if need be, Spike get a picture of this guy to Winnie so she can work on an ID, then I want you assessing that bomb in whatever way you can from here. Ed, Sierra One, Jules…Sierra two. Its a corner office, looks to have windows on two sides, each take one."

Ed and Jules nodded and exited the truck to retrieve their gear from the SUVs. Ed hesitated, having realized some time ago that Sam and Jules were back together. "Jules, you good?"

"I'm fine Ed, I can do my job."

That was all he needed, and they exchanged notes on which buildings they were planning on entering to set up their shot.

Negotiation continued inside.

_"Can you tell me why we're here?"_

_"What?"_

_"Well most people don't just put together a bomb and walk into city hall with it. Something must have happened, but what?"_

_"Thats none of your concern!" _

_"OK, Do you mind if I just check on my friend here?"_

Spike and Parker watched as Sam attempted to lean down to see if Raf was alright, but the subject was less than accommodating.

_"He's fine! …For now."_

_"Are you waiting for something before you press that button? You've been checking the clock, are we waiting for a specific time?"_

_"Shut it!"_

This negotiation was going nowhere, and they all knew it. Sam figured his team was listening by then so he decided it might be time to push more for information than resolution. At the very least he might be able to let Spike know that what he was looking at was a large yet basic bomb, likely made in this guy's mom's basement. "So what, you found a diagram in a grade nine science textbook of a basic circuit and decided to alter it slightly to make a bomb? That's not very original…"

"And?"

"I'm just saying, this clearly isn't a showcasing of your bomb making skills, so it must be more about the location, or the date." _Or about a million other things, _Sam thought to himself_._

Spike turned to his boss, "What's he doing? Is he _trying_ to piss this guy off?"

Parker took a moment before answering, looking perplexed, then calm came over his face. "He's feeding us information. Check out the ID badge on the subject's belt. What's it for?"

Spike zoomed, enhanced. "High school about a block from here," then, before anyone could prod him to look for more he added, "Our guy matches a personnel record, night janitor, Bill Gray."

"Winnie get me what you can on this guy. Spike what's your read on the bomb?"

The subject had resumed pacing, making it easier for Spike to catch glimpses revealing more and more of the construction of the bomb. "Its fat and dumb. There's only room for one trigger, the remote detonator he has in his hand, assuming thats taken care of it should be relatively simple to disarm."

"If detonated?"

"Stands to run through most of that floor, mostly superficial damage to the building, couldn't take out an major structural elements. People on that floor though…"

"Sierra one, status?"

Ed shook his head a little. "I've got the solution provided our friend here doesn't decide he needs to pace too close to the east window - blinds are in my way then."

"Sierra two?"

Jules peered through the scope. "I've got the solution."

Parker paused, worried he might be running into some rough ground. Sam was the hostage, Jules a sierra shot. The potential here… "ok…Jules you sit tight. Should he move out of Ed's range you'll take over as Sierra one. Ed, hold for my scorpio, I'm dialling in."


	5. Scorpio

Longest negotiation of life. Parker had been able to talk the subject down from red to yellow, having convinced him to put down the gun and pass it to Sam. Raf was slowly regaining consciousness in the corner of the room, and was playing out the possible endings of the situation in his mind. _Reach for the detonator, a struggle, bomb goes off. Don't try for detonator, subject escalates, bomb goes off. _He knew negotiation was their only option here, and decided it would be best just to 'chill' until this was over, and eased back down into his previous position. He could faintly here the sound of his boss' voice through the phone the subject was holding.

"Thank you Bill, I really appreciate you handing your gun over to my guy in there. Now, what say we talk about that bomb you've got there…" His hand covered his phone as he turned to address Spike. "I want you one floor below, ready to step in and render this thing safe, but not so close that you're in range, you understand me?" He knew damn well Spike understood, but couldn't help himself after what had happened to Lew. Spike left the truck and headed up to the floor just below where Sam and Raf were, waiting at the doorway to the stairwell for the order to get in there. "Bill you need to set down that remote so we can all go home today."

Something snapped and Sam saw it on Bill's face. "NO! No one is going home!" He waved the remote detonator wildly in the air, shooting Sam and Raf deadly glances.

"Boss he's escalating," reported Ed from his position in the next building.

"Bill please calm down, set the remote down. We just want to-"

"No. No I'm calling the shots here. The remote stays. Keep talking and I'll press the button, don't think I won't do it."

Winnie came on the comms and gave Parker a quick run down on Bill's situation at home. His wife had died in a car accident, her car having collided with a city bus in rush hour traffic. It became clear that Bill was looking for some symbolic form of revenge, and that a bomb in city hall was the loudest way of doing so. "Bill I know why you're up there and let me tell you it isn't going to do what you want it to - it isn't going to bring back your wife. It isn't going to bring Lydia back Bill."

"No. No its not."

Greg watched the monitor as he saw the man pace to the opposite side of the room, so that he was standing behind the bomb he had built. _Dammit._ "Ed, you still got the shot?"

"Negative, he's behind the blinds now. Jules?"

She swallowed. "Got the solution."

"Ok lets try this one more time…" he said, as he turned back to his phone. "Bill, I know you're upset about the loss of your wife, but a bomb in city hall, that's not going to solve anything, and I know you know that."

"You don't know a damn thing!"

"Then tell me Bill. I want to know. What's the plan here? Thats not much of a bomb you've got there but you and I both know that you'e too close to it to survive the blast."

"I know that."

Raf's eyebrows arched as his training resonated in his mind, and he and Sam exchanged glances. This guy was giving up, not on his mission to set off a bomb and do damage to city hall, but on himself. On life. Bill was at the end of what was understandably frayed rope and was slipping off the edge, and he was going to take Raf and Sam with him.

"Lydia, I'm coming to you sweetheart." His finger moved towards the button.

"Scorpio."

The shot rang in their ears as it sliced through the glass, flawlessly taking down the subject. After seizing the remote from the dead man's hand Sam glanced out the window to where the shot had come from. He gave a nod in the general direction, and turned to help Raf up off the floor.

_Nice shot Ed, _he thought.

Spike entered the room, kit in hand, and disarmed the bomb in what he could only believe was record time.

Sam and Raf made their way out the front doors of the building to the paramedics that were standing by to tend to Raf's head wound. Sam gave a confused look as he saw Ed talking to the uniforms who had been in charge of maintaining the perimeter, then put the pieces together. He tore his gaze away from Ed just in time to see Jules being escorted out of the other building by SIU, her rifle already bagged. He didn't remember the last time Jules was the one to take that shot. He ran through their incidents in his head - as far as he could remember she hadn't been the one to take that shot, at least not at any point when they were _together_. His heart sunk as he watched her face, the guilt and sadness and sense of duty washing over her in waves. She met his eyes for a split second before turning to Greg who gave her a knowing look, and a nod telling her she did good. Sam watched as they got into the police car and disappeared into the urban wilderness of downtown Toronto.


	6. Post Call

Having debriefed quickly over a review of the day's transcripts team one relaxed in the briefing room, waiting for Jules to be finished her interview with SIU. As a result of the waiting an awkward silence had crept up on them, and Spike felt the duty to interrupt it. "So Samtastic, team three eh? Get tired of running with the big boys?"

He gave a quick chuckle, "Yeah, guess so."

"Seriously though, congrats man. Now I get to call you Sergeant Samtastic. Got to love the alliteration there," Spike smiled at Sam, partly because he was proud of his friend and teammate's accomplishment, and partly because he knew the job came with a huge benefit for Sam: Jules. He had become acutely aware of their involvement one evening when, as he and Sam's sister Natalie were shredding clothes at Sam's apartment, Jules had walked in in search of her cell phone. He had jumped higher than he thought humanly possible, frantically redressing. Jules had sputtered something about sorry, then, with a quick glance at Spike they made a silent agreement not to mention the incident ever again. After that he had watched Jules and Sam silently fall for each other, and, as much as he loved his team and didn't want anything to change, secretly wished one of them would give in to the game of chicken they seemed to be playing and find another job. He wondered briefly what was next for team one - what would their next rookie be like? How long would it be until the team had moulded the rookie into their tight knit family? Would Sam still join them at the goose when they were all off shift? He didn't often see Donna or anyone else from team three, though he admitted he had never tried to.

Snapping out of his thoughts he tuned back into the conversation. Ed and Greg were lightly teasing Sam about Sergeant Samtastic, and Raf had thrown in a comment about not letting it go to his head, a comment that sent to boys into fits of laughter, recalling the cocky blonde kid who had joined the team way back when. Sam's response was equally priceless, saying something humorous about his bandaged head wound.

Sam looked around anxiously and finally had to ask it. "What's taking them so long?"

The team paused, checked the clock.

"Likely just pestering her," Greg responded calmly, though he knew it was more than likely. His own interview had carried on for two hours, and now, 30 minutes later, they sat, still waiting for Jules to finish with hers. He knew SIU would ask her why she, the person who had been almost permanently labelled second negotiator, was in a sierra position. After all, they had just finished asking him the same question. He had defended the decision tooth and nail, saying she was an excellent marksman and the main reason she had been in the negotiator position for so long was because she had expressed interest in learning more about that aspect of the job. She wanted to learn more about reading people. He had let her lead on a few talks, and she was a natural so it stuck. After all, he had comparable snipers who hadn't so adamantly requested more talk time, so he had allowed her to stick with him in negotiation. But today he needed her as a sniper, and she had willingly done so. He only hoped this wouldn't lead to something bigger than a scorpio shot.

They all sat making somewhat small talk as they waited, simply to make sure everything went well with the interview before they dispersed for the rest of their weekend off. Originally there had been plans to visit the Goose as a send off for Sam, but they had all agreed that after the day they had all had they were best to leave that for next weekend. Finally they heard footsteps down the hall and watched as SIU exited the building. Jules finished chatting with her lawyer and entered the women's locker room. Greg asked the lawyer if everything went ok, and she nodded, blaming the extended period of questioning on an over zealous SIU agent looking for something that wasn't there.

The team breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright well we all know Jules'll spend a year in there doing her hair, so I'm going to take off," Ed smiled. "Sophie is working and Clarke is at a friend's cottage for the weekend so its just me and my girl." The team had often mocked how he had become a bit of a sap since Izzy came along, and laughingly rolled their eyes at his statement.

One by one the crowd excused themselves, until it was just Sam, who was waiting for Jules, and Greg, who had found his second wind and was taking the opportunity to finish some paperwork he had planned on leaving for Monday.

"Ready to go?" Sam asked as Jules reappeared from the locker room.

"Yeah." She walked to the briefing room to say goodnight to Greg as she waited for Sam who, typical, had waited until she was ready to leave to realize he still needed to grab his coat and gym bag from his locker.

" 'Night Sarge."

He looked up from his papers. "Everything good Jules?"

She nodded. "Yeah." A lie. It wasn't good, she had helped a stranger kill himself today. All she knew was his name, and that his wife, Lydia, had died in some kind of car accident with a city bus. She didn't know how long they had been married for, or even how long ago it was that she died. All she knew was he was dead, all because they hadn't been able to talk him down.

Greg sighed, knowing exactly what was going through her head. "You know we did everything we could, right?" He paused. "Sometimes you just can't win. Bill was intent on dying today, and that shot kept him from taking Raf and Sam with him. It was good work, Jules." She took in his words and gave a half smile, just enough to let him know she heard him and appreciated what he said. "And now that you've got Monday off you'll actually have a two day break from this place."

A mandatory day off while SIU sorted through transcripts wasn't exactly a vacation, but she decided to embrace it. "Sounds good."

"...And on Tuesday we'll be breaking down a bunch of team one wannabes, and I know how much you love torturing potential rookies."

She laughed, and turned to look down the hall towards the locker room, making sure Sam wasn't on his way back yet. She got an inquisitive look on her face, then shook it off, hoping Greg hadn't seen it.

Too late, he had. "Jules? Whats on your mind?"

She sighed, unsure of how to answer. She was about to answer 'nothing' when her mouth took over out of her brain's control. "Why's he doing this? Why leave? Why now? Why-" She stopped as she heard the locker room door close and Sam's steps coming towards her.

Greg stared at her, a little bewildered by the quick spouting of questions that had just flown out of her mouth. "I think you should ask him about that." He smiled.

She took a deep breath just before Sam joined her in the doorway. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah. Later Sarge."

" 'Night Sam. See you tuesday Jules?" More a statement than a question.

"Yeah."

They walked in silence to her jeep, and let the silence continue most of the way back to her house. Aside from telling her about the rescheduling of their Goose visiting plans Sam wasn't sure what to say to her. They had gotten into a routine of sorts, where she knew how to respond after he had taken a shot like that, but he was out of practice as far as how to deal with Jules in that state. "Hungry?" he asked.

She looked like she had to think hard about it. "No."

He nodded. _What the hell am I supposed to say?_ "So, new SIU kid give you a hard time?" When her face contorted he answered the question before she could verbalize it. "Your lawyer said he was a little over zealous."

She shrugged. "He was kind of an ass. Had to tell him to turn around while I got undressed, and that kind of set the tone for the whole thing."

He cringed slightly at the thought of some douchy SIU kid checking her out.

When they arrived at her house she walked ahead of him, straight into the house, and up the stairs. He heard her running the bath, which made sense since that was what she would do after any kind of emotionally charged day at work. Deciding it might be best to leave her to her own thoughts for a bit, he slumped down on the couch, flicking on the tv to check out the highlights of the night's sports.

He wondered what would happen after her bath - if she would talk to him about it more, if she'd go straight to sleep, if she'd insist she wanted to be alone and send him back to his apartment where his sister was no doubt enjoying her weekend alone in his apartment, likely with some guy she'd found in a bar. He knew Jules well, but for some reason when he tried to figure out what he method of coping would be for the night he drew blanks. All he wanted to know was what he could do for her while she dealt with the events of the day. She had said she wasn't hungry so he figured she wasn't about to eat her emotions, and he knew she knew better than to turn to a bottle.

At the thought of food he suddenly became aware of his own hunger, and made his way into her kitchen. He stood in front of her open refrigerator. If asked, he'd claim he was assessing the situation, but in reality he was simply standing there waiting for dinner to jump out at him. He focused on the contents a moment longer - eggs, bacon, mangoes, strawberries, beer, leftover spaghetti sauce. His deep, food related, thoughts were interrupted when she came up behind him and - oh, there it was, how did he not see that coming? He knew exactly what she wanted, and what he could do for her. He willingly obliged.


	7. Late Night Snack

**Disclaimer: Probably should have said this sooner, but just so there's no confusion, I don't own anything.**

_A/N: Thank you for the lovely reviews! I forgot how much I loved getting them! Also, this chapter was originally much longer, but then i got excited and split it into two, so chapter 8 is getting posted now too! Enjoy!_

Sam lay in bed, his arm around a contentedly sleeping Jules. His mind wandered to their morning, when he had told her he was leaving team one to be team three's new sergeant. He was still in awe of her reaction. It's not like they hadn't been talking about their options - they had been involved secretly for a few months, and Sarge had been keeping a close eye. They were both tired of the sneaking, the lying, the constant strain of justifying everything he or she did in an effort to prove to him that their 'involvement', as Sarge had so delicately put it, was not affecting their job performance.

A few weeks earlier, the night before he had applied for promotion to be exact, they had gotten into some wine she had been keeping for 'a special occasion'. Realizing she had no idea what such an occasion could be, Jules had opened the bottle and poured them both full glasses. They finished the bottle over a plate of homemade nachos, and decided a second bottle would go well with the ice cream she found for dessert, which coincidentally required them to remove their clothes and violate her newly renovated kitchen. The third bottle had been opened as they sat there, half dressed on her kitchen floor, admiring the locations of their still shed clothes - a sock on the stove, his jeans on a bar stool she didn't remember going near. and finally her bra, dangling from the lights above them. 'How did that get there?' he had laughed. Then she said it: 'I got another offer from the RCMP - this time to come back and work as a hostage negotiator.' He remembered thinking that was awesome, until she told him she wasn't sure about it because it basically meant she would spend her life on standby, waiting for a call requesting RCMP assistance at a situation, mostly in small towns where the police forces had less assets, i.e. no SRU. She had pointed out that it would be nice because it would mean no more secrets, but that she didn't want to spend her whole life travelling for work, unsure of when she'd be home again.

She had considered it then, but maybe that was the wine talking, he thought. Maybe now that it was real - he was leaving team one and they could now be free to go out on dates, to talk to their friends about it, to have their pictures in each other's lockers - she was losing her interest. Maybe the biggest appeal of him was the secrecy. The sneaking around behind their team's back. Maybe she only really wanted what she couldn't have. Maybe she only wanted him in secret. Maybe she was-

His thoughts were interrupted as she stirred in his arms, looking up at him with half open eyes. "Shoo deet" she mumbled.  
>"Huh?"<br>She gestured to his rumbling stomach, and tried again. "Should eat," she told him.  
>He smiled. "Sorry, did my stomach wake you?"<br>She shook her head 'no' as she sat up, eyes still only half open, trying to sort out what time it was. "I think there's still some sauce in the fridge if you wanted to make yourself some pasta," she said lazily, flopping back down on the bed.  
>"Hmm. Might do that. You want anything?" He knew she hadn't eaten dinner, and could hear her stomach making sounds of its own.<br>"No…" she whispered sheepishly.  
>He laughed, knowing where this was headed. "Ok," he told her. "Do I want cheese on my pasta?"<br>"Yeah… lots…"

He laughed and padded down the stairs to the kitchen, where he made a large pot of spaghetti to go with the remaining sauce. He dumped it in two bowls, topping one with excessive amounts of parmesan cheese, Jules style, and took them both upstairs with him. Jules was awake now, and gave a small smile as she saw he had caught her not-so-subtle hint and made her some. They sat there in her bed, eating spaghetti at 3am.

Finishing off her pasta she looked pensive, and finally turned to him. "Sam?"  
>"Yeah Jules."<br>"I'm sad that Bill Gray died."  
>"Me too."<br>"But I'm glad you're ok," she nodded, and turned bad to her noodles. "Raf too."  
>Sam gave a nod, happy she had been able to talk to him about it, even if it was just the basics of what he knew she'd be feeling. He got up and took their plates downstairs, and when he got back she was back under the covers, waiting for him. As he settled back in beside her she threw her arm over him and eased her head down onto his chest.<br>"I love you," she whispered, almost afraid to say it.  
>"I love you too Jules," he told her furrowing his brow as he considered interrupting the moment to ask about the awkward. He decided that was as good a time as any. "Jules, what was this morning about?… Jules?" As he glanced down his eyes fell on a sleeping Jules, or at least what appeared to be a sleeping Jules. He could tell when she was faking sleep, but decided against calling her on it.<p> 


	8. Inquisition

**Disclaimer: Still don't own a damn thing... boo**

_A/N: Ok so I'm trying to include Raf in all this, although he's still relatively new so I'm not entirely sure how to write him, so my apologies if anyone finds him at the end of this chapter to be inaccurate. _

* * *

><p>Jules stood in front of the locker room mirror, pulling her hair back into a pony to keep it out of her face while she worked. Noting the time on her watch she made quick work of it and headed out. She met up with Spike, and they walked to the range together to meet up with the rest of the team, who had just started running drills on the many anxious cops vying for a spot on team one.<br>"So how's life with Samtastic?" Spike smirked, then when Jules gave shot him a nasty glare he added, "Oh come on, you're not on the same team anymore, we don't have to pretend its a secret that you two are together." She rolled her eyes and he pressed on, "So like, is Sam the romantic type?"  
>"Is Natalie?" she snapped.<br>She had him there - he had taken his still beating heart as a good indicator that Jules had never told Sam about what she walked in on that one fateful day in his apartment, a fact that Jules' tone had just confirmed. "Fair enough," he conceded, as they reached their destination.

* * *

><p>Greg looked anxious to get the process started. "Nice of you to join us. Now, we've got our first group of 25 here. We'll start with some target practice." Ed moved to take his place at the beginning of the line of recruits, and began drilling them with questions. That narrowed down the first group pretty quickly, and as he ran through the second the rest of the team talked to the first group to see if there was anyone that stuck out.<br>There was another female sniper, a blonde named Laura, who felt the need to introduce herself to Jules. After talking to her briefly, Jules turned her back and walked towards Greg, shaking her head.  
>"No. Hell no."<br>"That bad?"  
>"Sarge, she just asked if there was room in our tac vests for lip balm." They both laughed.<br>Spike wandered up to the pair, rubbing his temples. "Guys I hope you're having better luck than I am. Some kid just asked how many bombs I've 'gotten to see go off'. Red Flag."  
>"Geesh," Jules huffed, scanning the crowd for some sign of Raf. She found him, talking to a group of guys who looked like they were a part of a boy band. As he started to walk over to join the rest of his team Jules directed their attention to him, hoping he brought good news.<br>He shook his head 'no'. "Maybe we should have done the psych evals first."  
>They all sighed, and parted ways to go try again. Ed joined them shortly after, and eventually they had narrowed it down to 10 candidates, and decided that was a good number to start trying negotiation with.<p>

First up was a guy named Alex. Relieved not to be the one under scrutiny, Raf graciously volunteered to play the subject, and took his place on top of a table, threatening to jump off the 'bridge'.  
>"It's not fair!"<br>"I know this is difficult sir but if you'll just talk to me…" Alex started, as Ed added to Alex's knowledge of the subject. "I know you feel like you've failed but…"  
>"I did fail! I failed both of them, and myself. I'm a failure!"<br>"No, no you're not. You're a man who made a choice and now you're having a tough time dealing with it. It happens."  
>The team looked impressed, but after that point the quality of Alex's negotiation began to waiver, and eventually his frustration reached a breaking point, prompting him to say "Alright then jump!" Knowing that negotiation is challenging and under the pressure of a job interview like this people aren't themselves, the team might not have given up on Alex had the next thing he said not been, "fucking talk bullshit." Jules reckoned that was what really got him crossed off the list.<p>

The rest of the recruits did alright at negotiation, again a learned skill so all they were looking for was some potential, some kind of drive to make a difference in a way only an SRU team could. After that they decided to call it a day, with 50 more recruits coming in the next day they had a lot of paperwork to sort through.

* * *

><p>Jules and Ed took care of collecting the targets from shooting practice and walked back together.<br>"This is going to be a long process isn't it?" Ed nearly whined.  
>Jules gave a small smile, "Yes it is."<br>Noticing her half hearted gesture Ed slowed down, hoping it would give him more time to get out of Jules what was bothering her. "Everything ok over there?"  
>Jules rolled her eyes, "Why? What did Spike say?"<br>Ed was confused, he hadn't spoken to Spike at all that day, aside from when they were together as a group. "Spike didn't say anything Jules, I just thought you were looking a little down is all." Jules didn't say anything. "So how's Sergeant Samtastic? Didn't see him yesterday since team three is on nights this week."  
>"He's fine."<br>Ed nodded at her short response. Nervously he asked, "You two ok?"  
>"Ed, everything is fine, just drop it." Ed could tell everything wasn't fine, but when he opened his mouth to press for more she cut him off. "Do I ask you about Sophie?"<br>Ed backed down, and decided there were easier ways to find out what was going on.

* * *

><p>Walking into the men's locker room team one found themselves sharing the space with team three, who had just arrived for their shift. Sam was standing at his locker laughing at something one of his new teammates had said when Ed and Spike cornered him. "What the hell is going on with Jules?" Spike demanded.<br>Sam looked shocked. "Hey, if you figure that out I'll buy you lunch."  
>"Sam! What did you do?"<br>"I didn't do anything!" Sam insisted, opening his locker to get his uniform shirt.  
>Ed's turn now. "Well you must have done something, she just nearly bit my head off when i asked her what was up."<br>"And I asked her about you this morning and she…well she deflected the question and turned the conversation around on me" Spike added.  
>Sam just shook his head. "Look I don't know what the deal is, she's barely talking to me right now." Turning his back to them he pulled his gym shirt off and reached for his uniform.<br>Seeing the fresh nail marks on his back Ed cleared his throat and nodded for Spike to look at them. Their jaws clenched, almost audibly. "Sam-" Ed started with a stern tone, sure he was about to give Sam the beating of a lifetime.  
>"What?" Sam spun around.<br>"Where the hell did those come from?" Ed took a step forward.  
>"Huh?" following Ed's gesturing finger he checked out his back. "…Jules," He said hesitantly, not sure that Jules would be comfortable with him talking about her like <em>that<em> with the guys on her team. "I said she was barely talking to me, not that I hadn't seen her," he added, seeing the doubt on their faces.  
>Raf, having been pretending not to notice the confrontation going on across from his locker, shook his head and said, mostly to himself, "Thats more than I needed to know." With that he left the locker room, deeming his presence unnecessary.<br>Spike and Ed stood studying Sam for signs that he was lying, but ultimately decided to take his word for it. "So whats the deal then?" Spike wondered aloud.  
>"No idea. Look, one minute everything's fine and I'm telling her I'm leaving the team, next thing I know she's got nothing to say to me." Sam shook his head. "If she's snapping at you maybe you should just leave it alone. But like I said, if you figure out what's going on I'll buy lunch." With that he left the room, taking the rest of team three with him.<p>

* * *

><p>Outside of the men's locker room Raf hesitated a moment, before wandering into the women's. "Decent?"<br>"Yeah."  
>As he rounded the corner he saw that Jules was the only one in the room. Donna must already be in the briefing room with her team. "Raf," she said, sounding surprised even though he had announced his presence. She thought he was nice enough, and they got along fine when they went out as a group, but aside from a few patrol nights together she had never really been alone in a room with him. "Whats up?"<br>Raf shook his head, not entirely sure what he was even doing there. "Just thought I'd come say bye…"  
>She eyed him suspiciously. "Alright, who said what?"<br>Damn she was good, he thought. "Nobody said anything, really just came in to say goodnight."  
>Her eyes narrowed, then, decided to leave it alone and change the subject. "Uh huh... So, excited not to be the rookie anymore?"<br>He laughed. "Hmm more like not the only rookie. I'm not sure I've worn off that label yet."  
>She smiled, "You're getting there, don't worry." She opened her locker to put away her curling iron and grab her bag to leave, exposing the door covered in pictures. When Raf smiled to himself she tilted her head and gave him a quizzical glance. "Whats so funny?"<br>"You have a lot of pictures in there." He said simply.  
>"And?"<br>"I always thought cops put pictures of things, people, that make them happy in their lockers. Sort of a reminder of why they're there after a tough day, you know?"  
>"Yeah…so why is having a lot of pictures my locker so funny?"<br>He stood up to leave before answering. "It's not, really, I just think it's cute that you and Sam both have that same picture in your lockers," he said, pointing at one of the two of them. Seeing the look on her face he decided to make his exit then. "See you tomorrow."

She stood stunned, and turned to check out the picture in question. It was just her and Sam, likely the only one like it in existence, she mused. It was from a night when she had dragged him out to a friend's house in Oshawa for a barbecue, and he had snuck his arm around her right as the picture was taken, later claiming 'its not like any of the team will ever see it'. As a result they picture found him grinning, and her blushing only slightly as a smile slid across her face.

She then wondered when he had put that picture up. She had only put her copy up that morning, having found it on her way out the door and felt the need to take it with her. She reasoned that he couldn't have put it up any sooner than the previous day, since that would have been the first time it would be _safe_, though it shocked her that he would have acted so fast with something as small as putting up a picture, _their_ picture, in his locker. Still, the thought made her smile.


	9. The Talk

**A/N: Just throwing it out there, how pissed was everyone at the complete lack of jam in team player? BUT I'm super psyched for next week's epi, and by psyched I mean at the end of the waiting my nerves will be shot. Anyways, long story short last night's episode along with the preview of next week left me craving Jam, so I've made some of my own. Enjoy.**

His first week on team three, his first week as _Sergeant Braddock_, had come and gone, and he was looking forward to getting to spend some time out with his friends from team one. It had been a long week, full of new reports he had to sort out. Luckily he had Donna there. He had never been too crazy about her - mostly because her beginning at the SRU was the result of Jules being shot - but she had been there to show him the ropes every step of the way, and he was actually enjoying working with her. As he waited for Jules to get ready to go out he wondered once again what was bothering her. He had tried to bring it up a few times over the week, but with her working days and him on nights there had been little time that they even saw each other, and that didn't leave much room for serious conversations. But tonight they were going out with their friends, and he wanted to be able to be _Sam and Jules_, without the awkward looming in the room. Yes, he was going to get answers, even if it meant being late to his own event. "Jules?" he called, walking up the stairs.

He found her in front of the mirror fixing her hair, something she never spent much time on, didn't need to, so he was always fascinated to catch a glimpse. He thought it was adorable how she seemed to feel the need to make sure she looked good, though he had been hard pressed to think of a time when she had looked anything less than amazing. He let out a small sigh and leaned against the doorframe, taking her in.  
>She looked at him through the mirror. "Yeah I'll be like five more minutes, relax."<br>"Not that Jules. Whats going on?" When she gave him the _you idiot_ look he shook his head. "Not 'what are you doing?', Whats going on? Whats the deal with you?"  
>She stopped what she was doing and slowly set her hairbrush down on the counter, taking a deep breath. She knew he wasn't going to let this go. "Its just… I don't know…"<br>He stared at her. "You don't know? Really Jules, _really_?"  
>His patience was running out and she could feel it. "Why did you leave team one?"<br>He blinked. "Um, what? I told you this, I-"  
>She cut him off. "You told me there was an opportunity and you took it, you never told me why you…" she trailed off, not sure where to start.<br>He knew if he didn't take control she'd never spit it out. "Ok, no, stop. Last weekend when I told you I was promoted you said 'please god tell me you didn't just do this so we don't have to sneak around' and I'm still lost. Of course leaving the team had to do with you. I chose to leave because I want to give this an actual shot, and yet it's like you're offended or something but I don't know what about that is supposed to have offended you. It's not like we hadn't talked about one of us leaving the team before."  
>"Its just… I… what happens next?"<br>If it was possible this confused him even more. "What? What do you mean 'what happens next'?"  
>She sighed, and suddenly it just came pouring out of her. "What happens next? You leave team one for me and then what? What happens if we break up? Then you're on team three, I'm still on team one and, oh yeah, I'm the reason the team was taken apart, ultimately for no reason. Who want's that kind of pressure Sam?"<br>"Why would we break up?" was all he could manage.  
>"What?"<br>He glared at her. "You said what happens if we break up, I want to know why we would do that. I love you, I'm fairly certain you love me too, so tell me, why would we break up?"  
>She backtracked. "Ok, so lets say we don't break up, then what? Are you going to resent me for-"<br>Click. He got it. Suddenly it made sense and he all but face palmed at the realization. "Whoa. No. No I'm not going to resent you for a decision I made about _our_ future. Not now, not in 10 years, not ever. Look I realize you're used to watching people let each other down…but you must know by now that I'm not either of your parents. I'm not going to leave you or blame you or whatever else you think I might do. Jules, you have to know this."  
>She stood in her bathroom fully clothed, yet feeling like she was completely naked. He had seen right through her, and she had no idea how to respond. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, she did, with her life, it was just that she was now so exposed she was shaking. Experience had taught her to expect the worst from people, and yet here he was, Sam Braddock, telling her she was full of shit, that he had no intention of leaving her, of hurting her. She thought she had said something, was sure she must have said something in response, but instead she had been standing there, staring him down through the mirror, tears in her eyes, incomprehensible noises coming out of her mouth. She was so shaken she couldn't even get it together enough to turn to face him directly.<br>Seeing this he couldn't help but pull her close, tell her how much he loved her, and that she had nothing to worry about. They stood holding each other for what felt like an eternity, in her bathroom of all places.  
>She finally turned to look at him, and suddenly a new smile crept up on her face, one almost secretive.<br>"What?"  
>She grinned. "I heard you have a new picture up in your locker."<br>He narrowed his eyes teasingly. "Oh? And where did you hear that?"  
>"Raf." She said simply.<br>"Huh. Didn't realize you two were so close."  
>She laughed. "We're not really, but he mentioned he thought it was cute that we both have the same picture in our lockers." With that she turned and left the room, grabbing her purse and heading downstairs. "Hurry up, you don't want to be late."<br>All he could do was smile.


	10. New Bonds

It was that day that he officially felt like a part of team three, and the first time he actually felt like a Sergeant, having made a call that he had never really had to make before. Donna had been up there for what he was sure had to have been hours, though he knew it might have only been minutes. All he knew for sure what that his perception of time had gone out the window, and all he could do was watch, and wait. Wait to make the call. It was up to him.  
>"Marie, if you could just put the gun down I'm sure we can get through this." Donna's voice was calm and collected. A routine negotiation, she told herself.<br>As instructed, Todd found himself a sierra position and the solution, and waited for Sam's scorpio. "Ok Donna, Todd's in position. Continue with negotiation but if that gun goes towards you again-"  
>"Got it." Donna shifted on the spot. "Marie, I realize you've had a rough day, and I'm not going to lie to you, you're in a lot of trouble. Thing is, you can still recover from this. I know you can. My team, they can help you. All you need to do is put that gun down."<br>They had been chasing the woman all day as she proceeded on a rampage through downtown Toronto. She had started out in the east end, where she shot her neighbours, then proceeded to shoot at will to get what she needed until she was at the opposite end of the city, including shooting two police officers who had tried to stop her from robbing a quickie mart.  
>"Marie, will you please just talk to me?"<br>The woman glared at Donna, gesturing ferociously with the gun. "What you can do is let me leave here."  
>"Marie I think we both know that that's not going to happen." The hand with the gun in it kept waving. "Listen to me: you need to put that gun down. If that gun points at a person, my team will shoot."<br>The woman laughed, a laugh that Sam was sure was going to haunt his dreams for the next several weeks, if not months. "I'm not going to do that."  
>"Why? Can you tell me why, Marie?"<br>"Because this is what I was meant to do."  
>"What was what you were meant to do? Die on a rooftop Marie? I know thats not what you want."<br>"No its not."Team three collectively held their breath, praying this was the connection Donna had been searching for. "What I was meant to do was kill people. Shoot them. I never realized until today. The first time I pulled that trigger. The power, the decisiveness. It's what I was meant to do."  
>The gun went towards Donna, finger on the trigger.<br>"Scorpio."

Donna peered down off the roof at Sam, the fear barely removed from her face, the newfound trust rising in it's place, the sadness of having watched someone die everlasting in her eyes. Sam returned her gaze with a quick nod, knowing they had just become an official team. He then turned to see a visibly shaken Todd releasing his grip on his rifle. The men exchanged quick nods before SIU officers walked them both to the cruiser.

* * *

><p>Sam was left alone in that interrogation room for what felt like an eternity, waiting while Todd was questioned. He marvelled at the difference - it was one thing to pull the trigger, but it was something completely different to be the one who had made the call to do so. To have given the <em>order<em> to do so. He wasn't sure one was harder, just that there was a difference.  
>Finally SIU came in, questioned him. He was used to the questioning, the doubt in their voices as they heard what he had to say, often without completely understanding the true gravity of what had happened. He supposed they might have shot someone at some point in their careers, though as far as he knew none of them were ever SRU. If they had been they wouldn't be questioning him like that. Any SRU officer would have been able to look at the transcript and fully understand why, and wouldn't have wasted his time with redundant questions.<br>_Had you exhausted the use of negotiation?_  
><em>No. Negotiation would have continued had the subject not turned a loaded gun on my officer<em> he thought, though he didn't dare say so. He knew that would lead to more questions that would ultimately just form a circle. A big, painful, soul crushing, circle.

When it was finally over he wrote out his report, then made his way to the locker room. He quickly got changed, just wanting to leave. He'd shower at home, all he wanted to do was not be stuck at HQ anymore. 3 hours in an interrogation room had done little to make him want to stay any longer than was necessary. Maybe Jules would be off shift on time today. They were both on days, so she shouldn't be done much later than him, even if his team was being sent home early due to the result of their last call. He checked the clock - _6:15_ - Jules will be off in 45 minutes, that gives him enough time to go home, shower, order take out and have it waiting for her when she gets to his apartment. He supposed he'd have to learn to cook one of these days, but that day wasn't today.  
>He was so busy going through his mental list of take out menus that he nearly ran head first into Commander Halloran. "Oh, sorry sir. Just on my way out."<br>Halloran shook his head, "I'm afraid that won't be possible yet Sergeant." His face was serious, his tone even more so. "Doctor Toth is here."


	11. Toth

**Disclaimer: Still don't own a damn thing. A/N: Ok so hopefully I haven't dug myself too deep a hole here… Toth just kinda smacked the keyboard and I was like omg, what's he doing here? But I couldn't delete it… it was too good of a way to end the chapter… Anyways, lets get this over with.**

Sam stared at Commander Halloran. "And?" Toth's beef was with team one, and, as of a week ago, Sam was no longer a part of that team. As far as he was concerned, Toth's involvement with his career ended the second he signed the paperwork to move to team three.

Halloran shook his head, knowing what Sam was thinking. "There are some technicalities here… Team One being on probation extends to individual officers. Technically you're still on probation."

Sam was shaking his head - this could not be happening. Toth couldn't show up and retroactively punish he and Jules once they were on separate teams… Could he?

Halloran's face turned to annoyance. As it turned out the Commander had lost all faith in Toth after he had told him to break up the team, only to take back his decision minutes later. To Halloran that wasn't a decision to be taken lightly, which he suspected Toth did. "I spoke with the inspector. You do need a new psychological evaluation, but the he has agreed to let me handle that, not Toth."

"Great. So I don't have to talk to him, why do you need me to stay?"

Halloran sighed. "Apparently the psych evaluation is the only thing we can get you out of. If he so wishes, you do have to answer any questions he has for you about any calls you went on while you were on team one. And he does have questions. Now, Callaghan is in there right now, she's the last of Team One to speak with him, so you'll have to wait until they're done to sit down with him."

Sam rolled his eyes, "Great."

* * *

><p>"So Julianna, how are you?"<p>

"Skip the pleasantries Doc, we've got 45 minutes 'til my shift is done." Jules stared at him defiantly. She had no problem keeping calm, didn't even raise her voice. Patience, however, was not something she had when it came to Toth, and by the look on his face she suspected he was trying to provoke her. Being rude on the other hand, well, tone of voice wasn't going to come through today's transcripts now was it?

Toth gave an arrogant smirk at her attitude. "Sounds good. Same as last time, 3 truths, 1 lie, in that order."

"My name is Julianna Callaghan, I have four brothers, I hate take out, and I love reality television."

"Word association, so first thi-"

"Yeah I get it, fire away."  
>"Tree."<br>"Leaves."  
>"Farm."<br>"Home."  
>"Family."<br>"Distance."  
>"Boyfriend."<br>"Love."  
>Toth squinted slightly. "Why is love paired with boyfriend and not family?"<br>"Probably because my _family_ all lives in Alberta, and I rarely see them because of the _distance_."  
>"Do you have a boyfriend?"<br>"Why? You interested?"  
>A laugh escaped Greg against his own will. Up until that point she had forgotten he was even there, hell she would have jumped at the sound of his voice had she not decided against that second cup of coffee.<br>"Case number 95817 - Bill Gray."  
>"What would you like to know?"<br>"Sam Braddock."  
>"Is that a question?"<br>Toth was getting annoyed. "How did Sam Braddock end up on negotiation? Isn't that _your_ job?"  
>She hardly blinked. "It's <em>all <em>of our jobs. Who does the talking in a particular incident is case specific."  
>"Fair enough, but usually its yourself or Sergeant Parker here who does the talking, is it not?"<br>Toth pressed on in spite of Jules' silence. "It's consistently you and Sergeant Parker who negotiate. So what happened here?"  
>What a nuisance. Had she not just had the same conversation with SIU a week earlier? Deciding it might be the path of least resistance she bit, and began to recount the entire case to him, almost directly quoting the transcript she knew was in front of him. "We entered the building in two teams - Ed and I took the east side of the building, Sam and Raf took west. There was a suspicious package on the main floor, which Spike took care of while the rest of us went about clearing the building of additional threats."<br>"I'm aware of that Constable, what I'm interested in is how Constable Braddock ended up negotiating, and how Constable Rousseau was injured. Can you tell me that?"  
>"From what I understand, they had cleared their assigned area and were on their way out when the subject got the jump on them, injuring Raf and cornering Sam."<br>"_From what you understand_?"  
>"Yes. From what I understand. I already told you, Ed and I had taken east while the others went west. I was not in the room with them when it happened."<br>"Hm." Toth wrote something in his notes, then flipped through the case file. "So once they were cornered Sam Braddock initiated negotiation, correct?"  
>She nodded.<br>"How did that go?"  
>She gave him a quizzical look - where was he going with this? "He started negotiation but his comm had come out of his ear at some point so we couldn't feed him the information he needed to be successful, so the boss dialled in."<br>Toth shifted in his chair. "So Braddock was not able to negotiate, and Parker stepped in?"  
>Jules just stared him down. "Sam had no comms which left him at a disadvantage with limited information to go on, so we intervened."<br>"Uh huh. And what happened once Sergeant Parker dialled in?"  
>"The subject began to calm down, surrendered his gun. But then he began to show signs that he was committing to suicide and-"<br>"And so Sergeant Parker called scorpio on a disarmed man planning to kill himself?"  
>"No. He wasn't completely disarmed, he still had the detonator for the bomb, and was moving to detonate. If he had he would have died, taking Sam and Raf with him. So Boss called scorpio."<br>"Because he wasn't able to talk down the subject," Toth interjected.  
>Jules glared at him. "The subject had made his decision - he was distraught over the death of his wife and was going to kill himself and two SRU officers. At that point there was no time for further negotiation."<br>Toth continued to take notes, pausing a moment to look up at Jules, then Greg, then went right back to his notes. They sat in silence for easily five minutes before Toth spoke. "Thank you Julianna, we're done here, you can go."


	12. Toth 2

**A/N: Just needed to express my appreciation for 'Priority of Life' - such a great episode, for Jam and for Team One overall. Anywho, here goes Toth 2, hopefully the end of Toth's reign of terror (for this story at least)… though I make no promises (figure i should cover my ass just in case - likely the law student in me talking)****.**

**Spoilers: Mention of 'Day Game', some spoilers.**

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><p>Sam sat down in his chair and shot Halloran a confused look when he was immediately attached to a polygraph. Apparently it was Toth's interview, therefore his rules. He had passed Jules in the hall moments earlier, and aside from looking mildly confused she didn't look upset, so he took that as a good indicator that Toth didn't know about the two of them.<br>"Constable Brad-"  
>"Its Sergeant now."<br>Toth nodded. "My apologies. Sergeant Braddock, I'm here today to evaluate the performance of team one and its members since my previous visit. I understand you've moved teams, however I do have a few questions I was hoping you would answer." He paused, but Sam did not protest. "So, same as last time, 3 truths, 1 lie."  
>"My name is Sam, I live with my sister, I recently moved to team three, and I hate mangoes."<br>"Ok. Word association: Road."  
>"Trip."<br>"Gun."  
>"Shot."<br>"Scorpio."  
>"Tough call."<br>"Interesting answer. Mind explaining?"  
>"I had to call scorpio today. It was tough," he said simply.<br>Toth nodded, jotted notes down. "Bill Gray."  
>Sam shook his head slightly and looked at the floor. "Poor guy."<br>Toth was intrigued. "Poor guy?"  
>"He was hurting. His wife died in an accident, he had no one else, thought he had no way out."<br>"He injured constable Rousseau, does that not matter to you?" Toth was fishing.  
>"Of course it does. But Raf is fine, and the fact remains that Mr. Gray suffered a tragic loss, one that destroyed him."<br>"And by destroyed you mean it lead to him being shot, yes?"  
>"Um, yeah I guess… He was hurting, we tried to talk him down, it wasn't working and he was going to detonate the bomb…"<br>"So that was when Sergeant Parker called scorpio?"  
>Sam nodded.<br>Toth nodded to himself as he reviewed his notes. "So Sergeant Parker called scorpio, and Constable Callaghan took the shot, neutralizing the subject."  
>"Yes."<br>"Tell me: do you think Sergeant Parker made the right call?"  
>Sam blinked. "Excuse me?"<br>Toth repeated himself. "Do you think Sergeant Parker made the right call?"  
>"Yes."<br>"Even though the subject had been de-escalated to yellow and had surrendered his gun?"  
>"Yes. He had de-escalated, however he then turned to suicide and turned his focus to the detonator."<br>Toth's tone was condescending. "And at that point all hope was lost of negotiation?"  
>Sam narrowed his eyes. "He was going to detonate the bomb. The call had to be made."<br>"Thank you that will be all Sergeant."  
>"wha-"<br>"I said that would be all."  
>Stunned Sam walked out of the briefing room, the door closing behind him immediately, Toth, Halloran, and Greg still inside.<p>

* * *

><p>Jules walked straight into the men's locker room, up to the rest of her team who was there discussing their interviews.<br>Ed gave her a nod, "So?"  
>She shook her head. "He's twisting facts - He asked me about Bill Gray. Its like he thinks the boss only called scorpio because he can't negotiate or something… it was weird."<br>The rest of the team nodded - their interviews had been much the same. Spike took a deep breath. "Think it…is it possible it has something to do with what the Boss said while he was trying to talk down the guy on the score board?"  
>"Would Toth have gotten that?"<br>"It can't be held against him can it? His life was in danger, he was literally being dangled off an edge…"  
>"I think its more than that… its just…" Jules stopped herself.<br>"Just what Jules?" Spike was almost defensive in his tone.  
>She exhaled hard. "Look, whatever he said up there, its not him, its the worst of his feelings floating to the surface in a moment of fear, we all know that. But lets face it, had that been any other one of us we would have been looking at at least a week of Sarge ordered leave, just to make sure we dealt with it alright. Did boss ever take any time off?"<br>Ed sighed. "She has a point. Anyone else would have been ordered days off, forced to take a break. Even then they would have had the Boss breathing down their neck making sure they were ok… Hell I barely asked him about it."

* * *

><p>Team One, plus Sam, sat in the locker room in silence, waiting for Sergeant Parker to join them. Jules had returned from her own locker room where she had taken the world's fastest shower for fear that she might miss something.<br>He paused and took a deep breath as he saw his entire team waiting for him. This was the part he'd always dreaded - he was the Sergeant, the Boss, the step above team leader in the ranks - he wasn't supposed to be weak, needy. He wasn't supposed to crack, fail, falter. All he could think was that he let them down, that they would never see him the same way again.  
>Ed interrupted his thoughts first. "So? How'd that go?"<br>Greg rubbed his head. There was no escaping them now. "He questions my judgment. Thinks I should have taken some time off after what happened a few weeks ago… He wanted to suspend me indefinitely-"  
>Spike slammed a locker door. "Boss thats not fair! You were in a hopeless situation, we all would have responded the same way!"<br>"I know Spike…"  
>Ed shook his head. "You said he <em>wanted to<em>… as in _wanted to_ but didn't?"  
>"Halloran made me a deal - I take two weeks personal leave, come back, and he watches me like a hawk until he decides not to."<br>The team said nothing, just waited for him to continue. Greg sighed. "What the hell am I supposed to do for two weeks anyways?"  
>The team smiled - they actually thought it might be a good idea. They were all completely clueless as to when the Boss' last vacation was, or if he even knew there was such a thing.<br>"You can babysit Izzy - after Toth she should be a breeze," Ed teased.  
>"Go south boss, hit the beach, just remember to throw some spf 50 on that head of yours," Spike suggested, which prompted the rest of the team to throw forth their own ideas, each one less Greg-like than the last, but all well meaning. Greg caught bits and pieces as the team went about brainstorming potential vacations for him, then bickering over each other's suggestions.<br>He was pretty sure he knew what he'd do with the time off - Dean had been gabbing on about some movie that he figured he could convince him to see with him, and there was a pizza place they used to visit when Dean was younger that he reckoned still served a decent slice.  
>Listening to his teammates bicker made him realize he had been wrong about letting them down - he had let himself believe that he had to be perfect, some kind of supreme being at the helm of their ship to guide them through everything. In reality what they needed him to be was human - somewhat of a role model. All they needed him to do was treat himself with the same level of concern he treated them with; he needed to recognize when he needed a break and take it.<p>

**a/n: ok so I have this weird vision of Sam and Jules holding hands or something in the parking lot as they pass Toth, some kind of figurative fuck you or something… didn't seem like it would have had a place in this chapter so i left it out, but that's what i figure happened as they left HQ… and you can go ahead and imagine that too if you want :) **

**Oh, and I heart reviews huge - love to know that someone took the time to read this, no matter what they had to say about it. So go ahead, write one :)**


	13. Bruised

**A/N: trying something a little different in this chapter, not really sure how i feel about writing the flashback style thing, but it seemed fitting for the chapter… drop me a review and let me know what you think please :) **

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><p>Sam had tried his damnedest to wait up for her but he couldn't take it anymore. They weren't quite on opposite shifts this weeks, him on days, her on evenings. Usually he would have had no problem waiting until she got home, but tonight team one had gotten suckered into staying late since both the other on-duty teams were out when their shift ended. Of course Jules had called to let him know, and he'd promised to stay up although she'd greatly protested, pointing out that he had to work early the next day. Around 2am his will power had failed, forcing him into her bed.<br>He felt her warmth as she crawled into bed beside him, laying on her side facing away from him. Half asleep he rolled over, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her close to him. As he did so he felt her flinch and heard a small gasp escape her. Panicked, he backed off and turned on the lamp on his side of the bed. That was when he saw it. "What the-!"

**6 Hours Earlier…**

Team one had just been through their first day with their new recruit. Nick Faulkner was an impressive shot and a determined negotiator, although he was quite young with only a few years field experience behind him. Mostly it was his drive that landed him the spot on the team - they had put him through hell in negotiation trials, dragging it out for hours at a time and not once had he given up, in spite of his growing frustration.  
>"Gotta love OT." Raf rolled his eyes.<br>"Hope you didn't have plans rookie," Spike said to their newest member.  
>"Nope, no plans," Nick said as he grabbed a chair next to Jules in the briefing room.<br>With Greg on vacation Ed had taken over the necessary paperwork, and Jules had stayed late a few nights to help him out so that he wasn't there too late.  
>Ed shook his head, "You know Jules you don't have to do that, I can fill everything out myself."<br>Jules rolled her eyes and smiled. "Yeah well, we already agreed to OT, I might as well make myself useful before the TL comes up with something more dull for me to do." Finishing what she had been working on she turned her attention to Nick. "So newbie, how was your first day?"  
>He sighed. "Long."<br>The team's laughter was interrupted as the alarm rang out, along with the night dispatcher Ryan's announcement of a hot call. Ed dropped his reports on the table and made his way to the SUVs, the rest of the team following suit. "Jules you take Raf, Nick you're with me and Spike. Ryan what are we looking at here?"  
>"ACC parking lot, a woman has a man cornered, she's armed, currently no shots fired."<br>Raf shook his head. "The ACC? Theres a concert there tonight, we're looking at major crowd control issues."  
>Ed nodded. "Alright Ryan have unis work on a perimeter, we've got to clear that area. Tell them we're 5 minutes out."<p>

After assessing the scene Ed began assigning jobs to his team. "Ok Jules, you good to negotiate?"  
>"Yeah."<br>"Good. Raf, you cover Jules, I'll find a vantage point from the other side of the perimeter just in case the subject changes direction. Spike, intel. Nick, you work on the perimeter behind Raf and Jules, we can't risk losing conrol of the crowd while the subject's eyes are on Jules, it'll spook her."  
>There was a chorus of copies and the team dispersed.<br>Jules grabbed on to Raf's vest, moving the pair slowly towards the woman with the gun. "My name is Jules Callaghan with the Strategic Response Unit. Mind if we talk?"  
>The woman didn't respond.<br>"Ok. I want to be able to hear you if you change your mind so we're going to move a little closer."  
>"No! Stay there!"<br>The pair stopped moving. "Ok. We're staying here. Can you tell me why we're here tonight? Whats going on?"  
>Shaking the gun at the man, the woman gritted her teeth. "He's a lying bastard!"<br>"Why's that?"  
>Spike's voice emerged in Jules' ear. "I've been running plates of nearby cars hoping one belongs to the subject and I got a hit off the drivers licence database. The woman is Veronica Vennors, 19."<br>Jules nodded. "And the man?"  
>"Still working on it, calling her parents right now."<br>"Ok." Jules took another step closer. "Veronica, I'm here to help, I just want to make sure we all go home today. Can you tell me how I can help you so that that can happen?"  
>The girl shook her head. "You can't help! Max is a liar! He deserves to die!"<br>Spike had already found the connection. "Jules, the man is Max Pilon, her boyfriend. According to Veronica's parents the two have an apartment together although they've been having problems."  
>Jules shook her head. "Thats a little vague Spike, what kind of problems are we talking about here?"<br>"They aren't sure. Her mom says Veronica showed up at their house one night last month crying about some Sarah person and Max being a louse, but was back living with him a week later. Possible cheating?"  
>"Great." Jules rolled her eyes. "Veronica, can you tell me what Max lied about?"<br>"I'm not a liar!"  
>"Quiet! He is a liar! All he does is lie! He said it was over, that she meant nothing. But he lied!"<br>Jules took a deep breath. "Veronica, Is this about Sarah?"  
>She finally had the girl's attention. "How do you know about her?"<br>"Your mom said you were upset about Max and someone named Sarah one night. Can you tell me what happened?" Jules began to inch forward cautiously, Raf still posing as her shield. "Can you tell me why you're so mad at Max right now?"  
>"He lied… They're still together… He said… He said he left her for me…I loved him..."<br>Jules sighed. "I hear you Veronica. Its hard when someone you trust hurts you. But are you sure that shooting him is what you want? Do you really want him to die?"  
>Veronica began to shake. "No… but… he… I just…"<br>"Its ok. I know you're hurt and angry, but nothing has happened here that you can't come back from. All you need to do is put the gun down and-" Jules was interrupted by a series of shouts, a woman's voice crying out 'its all her fault!', then the sharp pain in her back.  
>Ed's voice took over the comms. "What the hell just happened?"<br>The team moved quickly to disarm Veronica, moving Max out of the way, and addressing the woman (later identified as _Sarah_) who had come out of the crowd wielding a gun. The shock of shooting the police officer instead of her intended target, Veronica, had paused Sarah's actions long enough for Nick to gain control of her and disarm her.  
>"Jules, you good?"<br>As the wind came back to her Jules muttered a few curse words before responding that she was fine.

* * *

><p>Back at HQ the team had debriefed quickly. Despite Jules taking a bullet to the vest everything had gone relatively well, although Ed did take the opportunity to lecture Nick on appropriate crowd control.<br>After showering and changing in her locker room, Jules made her way into the men's locker room. Ed and Raf had already left, leaving Spike and Nick. Bypassing Spike she walked straight up to Nick.  
>"I'm…I'm so sorry Jules..."<br>"Crowd control isn't a difficult skill rookie, you'd do well to brush up on that particular technique." Nick stared at the floor, guilt making him unable to respond. "But it was your first day. So there you go, you've used up your one rookie mistake." As a small smile began to come over his lips she added, "That said, get me shot again and I promise you won't live to regret it. See you guy's tomorrow." With that she turned on her heel and left.  
>Nick watched her leave before turning to Spike. "Think she'll ever trust me again?"<br>Spike shrugged. "Jules didn't trust you to begin with, so you haven't exactly lost anything." When Nick frowned Spike laughed. "Relax, you guys'll be fine. She's right though."  
>"About?"<br>"Not living to regret it. She's a mean shot. Failing that, so is her boyfriend." Nick looked a little confused. "You've met Sam." With a laugh he led the now scared rookie out of the locker room. "Come on, we have to be back here in far too few hours."

* * *

><p>"Jules what the hell happened?"<br>Jules sighed and sat up in bed, knowing she wouldn't get to sleep until she told Sam what had happened. "New kid, crowd control, crowd got out of hand, some teenage girl decided to shoot another girl, missed and hit me instead."  
>Sam looked pissed. "Damn rookie!" he muttered.<br>"Its fine Sam. He messed up, but everything turned out ok. I'm fine. This is why we wear vests, remember?"  
>He sighed, running his fingers over the bruise. "Jesus Jules…"<br>"Sam I'm fine."  
>"Have you seen this? Its huge."<br>She rolled her eyes. "Sam, its not that bad. Now can we please go to sleep?"  
>He gave in, only after having examined the bruise until he was satisfied that she really was fine.<p> 


	14. Exposed Secrets

**A/N: Ok, I let a certain thing go on for a while, haven't mentioned it in like 10 chapters or something ridiculous so I had to pick it up... **

* * *

><p>Team three had come to the last of their 6 day stretch of day shifts, and team one was just starting theirs. Thankfully, that meant Sam and Jules would at least get dinner together tonight, even if come tomorrow he'd be spending his day off alone. Maybe he'd go by his apartment, make sure it was still there, that Nat hadn't pawned his stuff. They'd been staying at Jules' house for almost a week straight, and last time he saw Nat he had gotten the feeling that she was hiding something. He knew she'd been working, doing something to do with clothes he thought. That meant she was most likely hiding something to do with a guy, something Sam wanted to know nothing about. He preferred to think his little sister was the nun-without-a-convent sort. She wasn't, of course, but a guy could dream couldn't he?<p>

He finished his last bit of paperwork and looked around HQ, hoping to see Jules. She wasn't back yet, of course, as team one had taken the unusually quiet day as an opportunity to go on patrol. Tonight she'd have some random story to tell him about her day, about something funny or stupid that happened while on patrol. She would put on her 'man' face and do some lousy, albeit hilarious, impression of whoever she had driven around with that day. The best stories usually came out of time spent with Spike, although the Ed ones had gotten better lately, especially with all the time he had been spending with Izzy. Apparently one day he had said 'ta-ta' to Jules to get her to hand him something she'd been holding. She'd responded with a shocked '_Excuse me?'_, as his full head turned red with the embarrassment of what he'd just done. It seemed Ed might be losing his ability to interact with adults, or so Jules had insisted when she told Sam about it. Whoever she had spent the day with, Sam looked forward to the story. Although, there was still the issue of that kid Nick, the little shit who had gotten Jules shot not so long ago. He hoped for her sake that she hadn't been stuck in a car with him all day.

* * *

><p>Jules had been paired with Spike for patrols. Greg had briefly considered putting her with Nick, then figured Nick might actually have more to gain from riding with Ed, simply because the kid still seemed terrified of Jules.<br>"So," Jules began, taking a sip of her Timmies they had just stopped for. "You and Natalie still…uh…_involved_?"  
>"Don't say it like that, Jules."<br>"Like what?"  
>Spike cringed. "<em>Involved<em>… makes it sound so… _filthy_."  
>Jules laughed. "Ok, well, what would you call it?"<br>Spike thought for a moment, then turned to his friend, smiling slightly. "Well, the other day she called me her boyfriend so I guess we're dating? Why all the questions?"  
>Jules smiled at the obvious glee in Spike's eyes as he said the word <em>boyfriend<em>, then asked, "Is it serious?"  
>Spike's eyes narrowed. "Um…well… I don't know…We're…" He shook his head when Jules shot him a glare. "I don't know if we're <em>tell Sam<em> serious."  
>Jules shook her head. "Look Spike, if theres anyone who gets the not telling people thing its me, its just… I really hate lying to Sam, you know?"<br>He sighed. "Yeah, I know… I'll talk to Nat about it, alright?"  
>"All I ask." Jules smiled, then changed the subject. "So, think Faulkner will ever look me in the eye again?"<br>"You think Nick's skiddish around you, you should see him around Sam. All but hides in his locker when they're both in the room at the same time," Spike laughed.  
>"Poor kid… wait, why's he afraid of Sam?"<br>Spike sighed. "I think that might be my fault. After you told him off in the locker room he was worried that you'd never trust him. I told him not to worry about it, but that you were a mean shot and he really wouldn't live to regret it next time. Then I kind of might have thrown in a bit about how your boyfriend is also a mean shot, and he was confused so I pointed out that he had met Sam and…"  
>"Spike! I can take care of myself, thanks, you didn't need to throw Sam in his face!"<br>"I know, I know, I was mostly joking. It got to him more than I thought it would."  
>Jules rolled her eyes. She'd have to have a chat with Nick next time they were alone together. She only hoped she could fix it without having to ask Sam to talk to him, mainly because she figured Spike was right, and didn't see that conversation going well.<p>

* * *

><p>After shift Jules met Sam at the desk where he had been chatting with Winnie, and they walked out together.<br>"So, your place tonight?" Sam looked slightly shocked. Jules smiled. "Its your day off tomorrow and I know you'll end up there anyways, at least if we stay there tonight you'll be able to sleep in later. I'm sure I've got clothes there that I can wear in to work tomorrow."  
>"What about dinner? I doubt theres much food at my place."<br>She laughed. "Always thinking about food… alright we'll stop off at a grocery store on the way."

* * *

><p>By the time Sam and Jules walked up to his apartment door they were too involved in conversation to notice anyone but themselves. They had nearly walked into his 90-something year old neighbour Mrs Sullivan while bickering over how many vegetables Jules had forced Sam to buy, saying steak was not a suitable side dish for steak. They had bickered on occasion, usually about Sam's eating habits, or something work related, like which gun was a better choice for which shot. Bickering wasn't unfamiliar to them, and it didn't bother them when they did it - they considered it as normal as any conversation. After all, it wasn't like they were fighting. They rarely fought.<br>Sam dug his keys out of his pocket, mumbling something about sailors and spinach as he opened the door. He all but dropped the groceries on the floor when he saw what was going on in his kitchen. There stood his kid sister, in a frilly pink apron and chef's hat, trying to look like a serious chef as she followed the instructions of the man next to her. It took him a minute to realize who it was - _Spike?  
><em>"What the hell?" was all Sam could say.  
>Natalie and Spike turned around from the kitchen counter looking like two kids caught stealing cookies. Natalie cursed under her breath. "Oh…hey Sam…"<br>There was a long silence while Sam tried to piece together what he was seeing. It didn't take him too long, with only his own horror at the situation holding him back from understanding. Jules took a seat on the couch, next to Natalie who had removed her ridiculous hat. Spike seemed too terrified to move, and remained leaned up against the kitchen counter. That way, he supposed, he didn't have to worry about watching his back when Sam lost his shit.  
>Finally Sam spoke. "How long…" <em>has this been going on? have you two been lying to me?<em> _have you been fucking my sister? have you been fucking my best friend? _The end of the sentence wouldn't come together.  
>Natalie gave a sheepish look. "Six months."<br>"Six…Six months." Sam bit his lip, looked from his sister, to Spike, and back again. "You two have been sneaking around behind my back for six months?"  
>Natalie just looked at Spike, who spoke for the two of them. "We weren't ready to tell you… we were going to though, talked about it shortly before you got here…"<br>"Oh, good. I feel better now." Sam rolled his eyes, his voice dripping with sarcasm.  
>"Sam…"<br>"What Jules? This one's a mess, and she's dragged Spike into her web of destruction."  
>Jules shook her head. "Sam, she's your sister."<br>"And?"  
>Jules sighed, and turned to Spike and Natalie. "Maybe now would be a good time for the two of you to go…get some coffee or something."<br>The two gladly took the invitation to leave, grabbing their jackets before heading out the door. On their way out they managed to over hear something along the lines of '_you knew about this?_', but decided Jules could hold her own and continued out.

* * *

><p>Coffees in hand the recently exposed lovers sat at a table closest to the window, where they could see Sam's apartment building. Typical Sam, moving in just across the street from Tim Horton's.<br>"Think he'll hate me forever?"  
>Natalie shook her head. "Nah, he'll get over it. He just doesn't like being left out of the loop I think. Doesn't like surprises, or even surprise parties."<br>"I still feel bad about Jules. She covered for us, and now what? She's up there defending us while we drink double doubles?" Spike sighed. "Its not right, Nat."  
>"Yeah I know… Jules can handle Sam though. I'm sure she's done something to get his mind off of it already," Natalie replied, with a smirk.<br>They chatted for another half hour or so, deciding it was safe to return to the apartment only after seeing Jules' jeep pull out of the parking lot. Natalie gave a slightly mischievous grin. "Guess we have the apartment to ourselves again."  
>Instead, when they walked back into Sam's apartment they found Sam sitting alone on the couch, beer bottle in hand. Spike and Natalie exchanged nervous glances. "Sammy?" Natalie asked, sitting down beside him on the couch. "Where's Jules?"<br>Sam shrugged. "You two are back."  
>Spike nervously sat on the chair across from his friend. "We uh, saw Jules' jeep leave and figured you two went back to her place or something."<br>"Nope."  
>Nat gave Spike a small frown before turning her attention back to her brother. "Are you two ok?"<br>He sighed. "Apparently we lie to each other now." With that he got up from the couch and went to his room, closing the door behind him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And now I must apologize for how that went... and how the chapter left off... But, I promise to update soon, as I also dislike the way this chapter ended and need to share what happens next. (by soon I mean probably tomorrow night... or tomorrow morning, depending on how ambitious I get after I do my christmas shopping today). **


	15. Croque Monsieur

**A/N: Ok kids this is sort of a long one, and another somewhat cliffy ending... Will probably update tomorrow night after work though, so fret not :) **

**Also huge thank you to all that have been reviewing, I'm super enjoying the feedback and I hope you guys like where this goes. **

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><p>Jules walked into HQ, trying desperately to look alright. She passed Ed and Greg, mumbling her reply to their <em>good morning<em>s as she continued on into the women's locker room. Once there, she took yet another look in the mirror. She looked like hell. Her eyes were puffy, though they were no longer red, thank god. The puffiness was only exaggerated, however, by the dark circles that had formed under her eyes. It wasn't that she had stayed up all night, because she sure as hell had tried everything to get to sleep, but sleeping at half hour intervals with various trips to the kitchen to make more tea, then to the washroom because she had drank so much tea, had hardly added up to a good night's rest. With a sigh she dug through her makeup bag in an effort to make herself presentable before she had to meet up with the rest of her team.

* * *

><p>Ed and Greg stood dumbfounded in the entrance way of SRU HQ, unsure of what had just happened. While Jules didn't always do the cheery greeting thing, it had been a long time since they'd seen her in such a foul mood. They walked together to the men's locker room, hoping someone in there might have a clue.<br>Ed surveyed the teammates present in the room while he decided where to start. "Any of you talk to Jules yet today?"  
>Nick simply shook his head; he was still wildly uncomfortable around her.<br>Raf shared his gesture, and asked why.  
>Greg rubbed his head. "She's in a bad mood, barely said hi to Eddie and I. Very un-Jules if you ask me."<br>Spike closed his locker door and turned around to face the group. "I think I know what thats about." The group fell silent, waiting for him to continue. "Sam found out about me and Nat last night, and it lead to a fight between him and Jules."  
>Ed looked confused. "Nat as in Sam's sister Natalie? What about you and her? And what does that have to do with Sam and Jules?"<br>Spike sighed. "We've been dating for a while now, but hadn't gotten up the nerve to tell Sam about it. Jules found out a while back, and let it go on without telling Sam. So, when he found out she knew and didn't tell him…"  
>"Did they break up?"<br>"I'm not sure. I don't think so, but she went home and he just moped around all night."  
>Ed nodded, unsure of what else to do. He didn't have much time to think about it though, as they were soon alerted to a hot call.<p>

* * *

><p>The call was for a man threatening to jump off of a highway overpass. Greg had decided to do the talking on this one, asking Jules to be his second from inside the truck. This left her to sit with Spike for most of the call; he pulled up information on the subject while she developed a profile and forwarded it to the boss. The call ended well, with the subject climbing down off the bridge railing after about forty five minutes of talking with Greg.<br>Spike and Jules logged off of the computers in the truck, and rode back to HQ in one of the SUVs together.  
>"Jules, listen, about last night…"<br>She simply shook her head. "Spike, don't worry about it."  
>"Thats the thing Jules, I am worried about it. You covered for me and Nat and now you and Sam what? Aren't speaking? I tried to talk to Sam last night and-"<br>"Spike, like I told Nat when she called me last night, don't worry about talking to Sam, he wouldn't listen to me and he sure as hell isn't going to listen to either of you two right now."  
>"I still tried, but he didn't want to talk to me. I just wish I could fix this thing for you two, you know?"<br>Jules rolled her eyes. "Spike, its not your thing to fix. I chose to keep it a secret from Sam, it's my problem, not yours."  
>"But Jules we shouldn't have gotten you to lie for us in the first place and-"<br>"Spike, listen to me. I'm a big girl. I made a decision and it came back to bite me in the ass. That said, I don't regret the part about doing a friend a favour, just the part that involved lying to Sam. You don't get to take the credit for this, so let yourself off the hook." Spike gave a small nod that let her know he would leave it alone. "Now, how are we going to get out of doing the restock?" They both laughed.

* * *

><p>Sam woke up, hoping he had dreamt what had happened. Instead, when he opened his eyes he saw that he hadn't been dreaming. He was in his apartment, no Jules to be found. In the living room he found the bagel Nat had left out to defrost for him, along with a note asking him not to be mad at Jules. Had he not felt so miserable he might have laughed - how could he not be mad at Jules? He had left himself open to her, and in return she had kept what he considered to be a rather large secret from him. He expected Nat to lie to him - he had never been accepting of any guy she dated so really her not telling him just made sense. Spike, well, he probably just didn't want to deal with the reign of brotherly terror he would unleash on him, which Sam supposed was fair given how he had reacted. But Jules, Jules he couldn't figure out. Had she come to him and told him about it as soon as she found out he wouldn't have been mad at her, hell he probably would have thanked her for telling him. Instead, she had taken his sister and Spike's side, helping them hide their whatever the hell they were calling it from him.<br>He decided he needed to ask Jules more about it, although _ask_ was rather polite considering he had planned on full on interrogating her. Checking the time he realized he had at least another 8 hours before she would be off shift, and filled his day with laundry and a run that had nearly killed him. He had run off his anger, which meant running until he couldn't anymore, then nearly caving in and calling a cab to get him back home. Only nearly though; he'd never actually let himself give in like that.

* * *

><p>He'd wasted time until he knew she would be home for sure - something he was made acutely aware of when Spike showed up to pick up his sister. He didn't say a word to either of them, simply took it as a sign that Jules would likely be home and left.<br>He had a key and had considered simply letting himself in while she was at work and making her talk to him when she got home. He decided against it however, not wanting her to feel ambushed. He wanted it to be her choice to talk to him.

Now he found himself on her front porch. Her jeep was in the driveway, and he could hear music from inside the house, but she was taking a long time to answer the door. He silently prayed she would come to the door, if only so that he wouldn't have to walk away looking overly pathetic.  
>Finally the door opened. She stood in the doorway, in an old RCMP hoodie and what he could only assume were what she referred to as yoga pants, although he was't sure she even knew how to do yoga. She had taken off her make-up, which didn't bother him since he didn't think she needed the goop anyways, although it did tell him she was probably too tired to worry about such things as her appearance.<br>It finally occurred to him it had been at least a minute and he hadn't said anything, so he spat out the first word that came to mind. "Hi."  
>"Hi."<p>

He looked briefly at his shoes, then back up at her. "Can we talk?"  
>She looked behind her into the house, then took a step to stand next to him on the porch, closing the door behind her. She didn't say anything; he had shown up at her house asking to talk, so he could do the talking.<br>"How was your day?"  
>She gave him an annoyed look. "Did you really come here to ask how my day was?"<br>Sam shook his head. "No." In spite of the fact that he had spent most of the day playing out this conversation in his head he wasn't sure where to start. "How long have you known?"  
>Jules exhaled hard. "Three months."<br>Sam's face was a mix of hurt and confusion. "You've known for three months and you didn't tell me? Why?"  
>"Its just… I don't know, I guess I kind of thought I owed it to Spike or something because-"<br>He cut her off. "Because he's your boyfriend and you aren't supposed to keep secrets from your boyfriend? Wait, no, that can't be it because-"  
>Jules just looked mad now. "Did you come here to talk or to tell me off? Because in case you don't remember, you did a fair bit of that last night."<br>Sam stopped rambling and just stared at her. What reason could _she_ possibly have to be mad?  
>"I felt like I owed it to Spike to keep his secret because he kept mine," she said softly, the anger fading from her voice as she saw the confusion return to Sam. "I only knew about it because I walked in on them one afternoon when I went to your place to grab my cell phone. Which meant that Spike knew about you and I because well, why else would I be in your bedroom in the middle of the day, looking for my phone?" When Sam didn't respond she kept talking. "So, Spike and I had a sort of an understanding - I didn't tell you about him and Nat, and he didn't tell Boss or Ed or Toth or the damn chief of police about us."<br>Sam blinked. He was quickly losing this argument and had to regain some ground. "Ok, but we've been on different teams for over a month now and you've never said anything about this." _Ha, lets see her explain her way out of that_.  
>Jules sighed and shook her head. "I don't really know. They weren't ready to tell you about them yet and I thought I'd do them a favour and let them keep their relationship to themselves for a little while. And no, I didn't enjoy the part of that that meant lying to you, but come on Sam, we lied to our entire team for months. I know you know what its like to need to keep something quiet."<br>There was a long silence before he could respond. "Why didn't you say this last night?"  
>"Would you have listened to me last night?"<br>He hated that she was always right. He wouldn't have listened. Hell, she probably did try to say that last night but he couldn't remember, he wasn't exactly in a listening mood. "I don't like fighting with you." He said quietly.  
>She nodded her agreement, and he knew that her night had been about as brutal as his, if not more so. "What's in the bag?"<br>"Huh?" he looked confused, before looking down to see the grocery bag in his hands he had completely forgotten he'd brought with him. "Oh, I was hoping to cook you dinner." She narrowed her eyes, as if to ask _'you? cook?'_, and he added "All the ingredients for croque monsieur in here."  
>She laughed. "Oh, so you're making grilled cheese?"<br>"Jules, why do you gotta ruin it like that? It sounds so much fancier in French." He feigned hurt briefly. "So, can I come in?"  
>She looked a little nervous, but let him follow her into the house. "I actually wasn't expecting company…"<br>He stopped dead in his tracks as he saw what was in her kitchen.


	16. Tasty Little Secrets

**A/N: Just a short chapter, somewhat filler, pretty fluffy to be honest. Next chapter will be longer, more going on, and don't worry, I'll address the Sam vs. Spike/Nat issue soon.**

* * *

><p>Sam looked around the kitchen, then back at Jules, and again at the kitchen. His eyes widened, his mouth might have been open although he was too distracted to notice. She had been busy.<p>

Cookies. Every kind, every size. Cupcakes, miniature ones, cooling by an open window. The oven was on, and he smelled what he hoped were brownies.

"What? Are you prepping for the PTA bake sale?" he grinned as he teased.

Jules felt the blood rush to her cheeks, and bowed her head to face away from him in shame. "I, um, bake when something's bothering me…as a distraction I guess..."

His grin faded as he put two and two together. _He _had done this to her. _He _had been the one she needed distracting from. And now she was standing there in her kitchen, surrounded by dozens of baked goods, ironically looking like a child who had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

She moved away from him, pulling out as many tupperware containers as she could before filling them to the brim with cookies. "Its stupid really. I don't even eat them, usually just end up bringing as many as I can into work and dropping the rest off at a shelter or something…"

He thought back over the time he had known her. She had brought cookies in when she got back from recovering from being shot, and again after that day at the restaurant when her then boyfriend Steve was shot. The similarities were clear. When she came back from recovery she hadn't been baking as a way to improve motor skills or tactical techniques, she had been coping with _their _break up. And when she made them after Steve was shot it was more to do with the fact that she had just been dumped. _Oh god, she thought we were going to break up_.

Unable to meet his gaze she continued rambling. "Its really just something to do that has nothing to do with work or anything else. Started it in high school. My brothers used to avoid me when I was in the kitchen, only to sneak in later to steal as many cookies as the could carry. It used to just be cookies, then I started getting screwed over a lot and decided to branch out - cupcakes, brownies, even tried my hand at pastries but as it turns out," she looked at him, only to find him staring blankly. "Sam?"

_Bothered? _"I _bothered_ you to the point where you turned your kitchen into a small industrial bakery?"

She blinked. "What happened bothered me, not _you_. I was upset, so I went to work on anything but thinking about you..."

_Screwed over? _"Did you think we we're going to break up?"

She sighed, shook her head. "I don't know."

He furrowed his brow. "We've argued before…did you think we were breaking up then?"

"No, but… Sam you asked me to leave. You've never done that before and it just… It wasn't good, Sam."

He nodded, beginning to see things her way. She kept secrets from him, yes, but he'd been a real ass about it once he found out. In hindsight it really had nothing to do with _them_. He had been so pissed off that she actually went back to her place that he had forgotten that that had been his idea. She hadn't _left_ him, _he _had asked_ her_ to leave. "Jules…" he said as he pulled her into him, kissing her for the first time since before he had found out about Spike and Natalie. "I'm sorry I lost my mind."

She shrugged slightly. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

He held her for what felt like forever before they were interrupted by the oven timer. She laughed as she pulled away from him, and pulled the tray out of the oven. Suspicion confirmed, they were brownies. He wandered over to where she was, wrapped his arms around her waist and took on a serious tone. "Jules?"

"Yeah?"

"Think I could, uh, have a brownie or two?"

She threw her head back and laughed. "After you make me dinner."


	17. Wisdom

**A/N: Ok, so to reply to a few reviews: The baking thing was NOT in the show - I felt like I needed to explain what Jules would do if she was pissed off at Sam (other than shoot stuff or yell at him, because frankly those don't seem all that healthy), and baking seemed like a suitable option (I personally bake my ass off when I'm putting off studying or writing a paper, so I know it serves as what feels like productive alone time haha). Also, I'm glad people are enjoying the speedy updates - I myself get a little caught up in it at times, so I'm all about posting more ASAP. And for the person who commented on the grilled cheese - its totally my favourite food as of late, one of the few things I can cook that isn't pasta. Oh, and I definitely only recently discovered the whole croque monsieur thing, which amuses me to no end because I'm pretty sure that the literal translation makes no sense whatsoever. **

**Anywho, new chapter. **

* * *

><p>It had been nearly two weeks and while things were great between he and Jules, Sam was still refusing to speak to Spike or Natalie. Jules was starting to get tired. She would ask Sam if he had spoken to either one of them whenever they drove anywhere together, as soon as he got home from work, as soon as she did. She wouldn't call it nagging, mostly because she was constantly having the same conversations with Spike and Natalie. Even being around HQ at the same time as Team Three proved to be exhausting, as Jules usually ended up running some kind of interference whenever they were in the same room, for fear that Sam would lose it at Spike, or Spike would lose it at Sam for being a far too overprotective brother. She had even seeked out the advice of Wordy, thinking his experience with children might be of some use here.<p>

* * *

><p>"Spike, please."<p>

"Jules, why would he want me to do that?"

"Spike, this isn't about you two. Could you please just do it as a favour to me? Please Spike?"

Spike huffed. "Why can't you do it yourself? He's _your _boyfriend."

"Because Spike, I have something else I have to do."

"What's so important that you can't pick up your own boyfriend?"

"I have an appointment."

"What kind of appointment?"

She paused a moment, crossed her arms in front of her and raised an eyebrow. "You really want to know?"

Spike shook his head. "Fine. But if I die…"

Jules rolled her eyes. "You'll be fine Spike. He'll have just gotten his wisdom teeth out so the sedatives will still be wearing off. All you have to do is drive him to my house and make sure he doesn't fall down the stairs until I get there. Oh, and stop at the drug store to get his prescription filled. He probably won't even realize it's you."

Spike pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. There was no winning against Jules. "Fine. But you owe me. Big time."

As Spike walked away Ed came to stand next to Jules. "There is no appointment, is there?"

"Oh, there is," Jules smiled, "with my hairdresser."

* * *

><p>Sam was confused. When they had put him under he was sitting in a dental chair, and now he found himself in a different room, in some kind of a recliner. He tried to ask where he was, but it came out as a smothered mumble. <em>What the-? Gauze.<em> He looked around the room and began to make out the faces surrounding him. There was the nurse who had brought him into the first room, another nurse who appeared to be stocking the shelves of a nearby cabinet. Then there was…

"Pwike?" he mumbled through the gauze.

"Yeah buddy, Jules sent me to serve as your escort."

Sam rolled his eyes. "gwreat."

A pissed off, and still very medicated, Sam walked out of the room to the reception desk where they had him sign for the billing, accepting, albeit reluctantly, some assistance from Spike. Spike didn't like it much more than Sam did, but he was fairly certain that if he let go of his arm Sam would lose his balance and land face first on the floor. It would look good on him, Spike thought, though he knew Jules would have a few very unkind words for Spike if he let that happen.

At some point while in the drug store next to the dental office Sam had felt the need to sit down, and had done so in the middle of one of the aisles. After that, he had turned a lovely shade of green, and Spike had to escort him to the men's room where he emptied the contents of his stomach, clumsily clutching the walls for support. Evidently he didn't come down from the anaesthetic very well, because between all the vomiting he had also started crying.

The crying made the fifteen minute ride to Jules' house a real treat. Sam had attempted to yell at Spike, but had ultimately ended up asking him to pull over so he could be sick on the side of the road. Spike held his tongue the entire time - he knew that whatever Sam's actual feelings about his and Natalie's relationship were, they would only be multiplied by the fact that he was currently stoned off of his ass. Once he had parked at Jules' house Spike opened the car door for Sam, who had begun rambling something about cars or bars or farms? It was hard to tell through the gauze.

"Alright, here we are," Spike told him, guiding him to the couch. "Jules should be back soon so-"

"Wules! Wules is wahsum. I wuv Wules." Sam sat back, smiling through his drug induced haze.

"Yeah, buddy, I know," Spike laughed, as he went to the kitchen to find some water to go with Sam's next dose of pain pills. "You have to take 2 of these, every 4 hours. Got that?"

"Wu take cawre wov me. Is Ok." He said simply. "Is ok if wu sweep wif my swifter. Wu gwood guy Pwike." With that Sam was out. Spike sat himself down in a chair across from the couch, smiling slightly. It seemed he had just gotten Sam's blessing; it was most likely the percocets talking, but he'd take what he could get.

* * *

><p>When Jules got home Spike met her outside.<p>

"How was he?"

"High as a kite. He's in there, asleep."

"Did he say anything to you?"

Spike laughed. "Hard to tell through the gauze, but I caught something about 'wuving Wules'. Oh and he said it was ok if I sleep with his sister… or something like that. Not really what I was looking for, but it'll do."

Jules smiled, glad that Sam had at least let that bit slip.

As Spike opened his car door he turned back towards the house. "Oh, hey, how was that appointment?"

"Good."

"Yeah, your hair looks better that way." He smirked as Jules' face told him she knew she'd been caught, and drove away.


	18. Not Fair

**A/N: OK So here's what I'll go ahead and call the depressing chapter, something I feel I should apologize for. Its Jammy, though somewhat focused on work, and to balance it out I'll make some happy Jam moments in coming chapters. Mostly I just wanted to get a chance to make use of the fact that Sam and Jules being on different teams means they don't experience everything together and at some point have to full out talk about all the crappy things that made up their day.  
><strong>**As always, reviews are much appreciated. **

* * *

><p>Jules set down the knife she had been using to cut up the fruit for her morning smoothie as Sam sat down at the other side of the counter. "So…"<p>

"So?" he asked, wondering what she was up to.

"Your sister called… She wants us to go out to dinner with her and Spike tomorrow night, seeing as we're all off."

Sam sighed. "Do we have to?"

"Sam, I thought we were past this?"

"Yeah, we are, mostly. Its just… we haven't had a day off together in a _long_ time Jules, I was hoping it would just be the two of us."

Jules gave a sympathetic smile. "Fair enough, I'll tell Nat we can't make it. But we're not cancelling, just postponing it to… some other time when we're all available," she looked up at him from the blender. "How you get me to agree with you so easily, I'll never know."

Satisfied with himself Sam finished his coffee and dropped a near smug kiss on her cheek before going upstairs to finish getting ready for work.

* * *

><p>Team three was in the gym, wasting time mostly. They had been all day without a hot call, but with team one out they decided to stick around the barn instead of going on patrols - it didn't seem like a good idea to be spread out over the city if a call did come in. Todd was going on about some girl he was seeing, Donna was giving him hell for it, and Sam was laughing, though barely listening. He was busy planning his day off with Jules, still marvelling at the fact that both teams had the same day off. He wondered briefly if it was a sign of hell freezing over; he'd be fine with that, especially if it meant he got to spend the entire day with his girlfriend.<p>

"So what? You're just not going to call her because it's '_not what you do'_?" Donna made air quotes with her hands.

Todd laughed. "You can't call too soon Donna, looks desperate."

She rolled her eyes. "But you _are_ desperate."

Sam snorted as Todd shot Donna a spiteful glare. "I am not desperate, I just-" He stopped as he saw team one walk in.

As they walked to an open briefing room Sam noted that they were a mess. Greg's post vacation smile had left and he was now looking like he'd aged a hundred years. Spike looked like he might vomit, as did their rookie. Raf stared straight ahead as he walked - he was doing his best to keep the emotion out of his face, but each and every member of team three could tell he was about to lose it. Lagging behind the group were Ed and Jules. Both in a state of shock, eyes glazed over. The colour had drained from both their faces. Ed looked down at the floor as he walked down the hallway and was quickly directed into a room by SIU. Jules looked like she couldn't decide where to look. She kept moving her eyes from Ed to the floor to straight ahead of her to her hands, her blood stained gloves. It was then that Sam noticed that every member of them had some amount of blood staining their uniform. Thankfully, far as he could tell, none of it belonged to them, although he knew that may have only made it harder. Taking one last look at Jules before the briefing room doors closed he swore he saw her lip quiver.

Their day off just went to hell.

* * *

><p>She'd asked him to drive them home in his car, saying she could get her jeep in the morning. Even when they were on the same shift they made sure to have 2 cars at HQ, just in case one of them had to stay late. He'd driven to her house, neither of them saying a thing. Once the car stopped she got out and went inside, straight to her room where she changed into the first pair of pj pants she found and an old t-shirt.<p>

He went inside behind her, locking the door before going into the kitchen. He had no idea what to do, so he grabbed them each a bottle of water and headed up to find her. He found her in her room, sitting on the bed, hugging a pillow. He sat down in front of her, offering her one of the waters. She stared at it, then looked away. She wasn't thirsty.

"You want to tell me about what happened today?"

She barely looked at him. "You mean to tell me you didn't watch the news?"

She was right, he had. After they saw the state of team one, Donna had flicked on the tv so that team three could see what had happened. Sam sighed. "News said five people died…some house in the suburbs?"

Jules shook her head, unsure of where to start. Her mouth suddenly dry she took the bottle he had been drinking out of and took a sip. "It was awful," she whispered, her eyes focused on a spot on the floor.

Sam nodded. He figured as much.

"We got a shots fired call. We heard another shot when we arrived, so we went in stealth. Spike was in the truck, trying to sort out the blueprints for the house. Problem is, the blueprints are thirty years old. The place was originally a triplex, but then some genius decided to make it a single family home. So it's three floors of too many stairwells and there's hallways where there shouldn't be and we're running around blind. Spike left the truck because, well, better to have another body in right?" She sighed. "So Spike and Raf took one stairwell, headed to the second floor, while Ed and I took another stairwell and headed to the third. Boss and Nick took the basement. We're going through this house, trying to clear the damn thing but god, if it isn't the worst design you've ever seen. We cleared the first room, then heard a sound and suddenly theres a goddamn cat there that hadn't been before. The place was like some kind of maze, with freaking secret passages or something. Then suddenly theres Spike on the comms. They found something"

Sam took another sip of water, watching her face as she recounted the day's events, her gaze never leaving the fantom spot on the floor. The horror in her eyes told him it only got worse.

"Its a baby." She dragged a hand up over her face, through her bangs and back down, pausing with it over her mouth for a moment, like she didn't want anymore words to come out. Then she continued. "Or, it was. Was a baby. Its the fucking body of a baby, still in her crib. Was probably sleeping when it happened."

Sam's eyes widened. "Thats…"

She met his gaze. "It gets worse." She took a deep breath, her eyes growing glossy with tears. "Theres more reports coming in, from Sarge and Nick. Two kids and a woman, turns out it's their mother. They found them in a closet. As if they had been hiding or something." She swallowed, as if it might keep the tears that had pooled in her eyes from pouring out. "We still don't know what the fuck the deal is here so we're still trying to clear the building. Ed took a room on the right, I went left. I went into this room and didn't see anyone, but considering what Sarge found I figured I should check the closet, although it was just a small one… was probably for towels or something before they renovated."

Sam braced himself for what came next, placing a hand on her thigh.

"So I opened the door and there's a little boy there, hugging this little girl. They're both just staring at me, like I'm going to hurt them, and I realize I'm still holding my gun up. I'm pointing a fucking machine gun at two kids. I have no idea how old they were, couldn't be more than two or three, so small. But they're alive, and we had to get them out of there because whatever the hell is going on they can't be in there. So I told Ed where I was, that he needed to get in there, that we needed to get them out." She was shaking now, and grabbed Sam's hand to steady herself, afraid she might fall off the bed. "So I'm there with these kids, who, once I lowered my gun and made sure they knew I was there to help, came out of the closet and backed themselves into a corner so I could make sure I was between them and the door. Ed was on his way, wouldn't be long, and I'm noticing that theres blood on both kid's clothes. They were still in their pyjamas, and all I can think is dear god how long has this been going on. I'm there, trying to watch the door while at the same time making sure none of the blood was coming from them when I heard a noise, and turned towards the door, keeping the kids behind me."

Sam gulped. _Please say it was Ed…_

As if reading his mind she shook her head, shaking the tears loose from her eyes. "It wasn't Ed. It's this other guy, some man, drunk as all hell. Before I knew it he had fired a shot off, in my direction. But in his pathetic drunken stupor he missed, hit the window instead. Ed got there just after he did, shot him from behind before he could try again."

"Thank god-"

She cut him off, her voice beginning to crack. "Yeah. Except that then we knew what was happening. The kids had run out from behind me and over to the guy, now bleeding out all over the floor, both crying, both asking 'daddy' to wake up." The tears were running freely now, and she let out a small sob. "Turns out the father was a drunk, beat his kids and wife up every chance he got. Finally snapped, found a gun, decided they all needed to go because, of course, they're the problem. He killed his wife and three of his five children, including the damn baby. And yet here's his two remaining kids, sobbing because they just had to watch their father die and Ed and I are there and you know he's thinking of Izzy and I have nothing I can say and so we're both mortified because its just not fair and..."

Sam couldn't listen anymore. He pulled her into him and cried with her as she sobbed, almost hysterically, into his shirt. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen her cry before, he knew he didn't like it. After the day she'd had though, he was powerless to stop it.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Gah, hope I didn't just ruin anyone's christmas... man I'll have to get that next chapter up ASAP. **

**Merry Christmas :) **


	19. A Day Off

She awoke the next morning in the same position she had fallen asleep in, Sam's arms still draped around her. A glance at the clock on her nightstand told her it was shortly after 5am, and she was wide awake. Usually she would take the opportunity of a day off to stay in bed late, but today was different. She had fallen asleep so early that any hopes of sleeping in today were gone. She could feel the skin around her eyes was irritated, a reminder of the endless tears she had shed the night before. Looking at Sam she saw he was still in the jeans and hoodie he had thrown on after shift - evidently he hadn't moved after she had cried herself to sleep in his arms, either because he didn't want his movement to wake her or because he had simply fallen asleep himself.

She opted to leave him to sleep a little longer, and made her way to the washroom. She cringed as she saw herself in the mirror, yesterday's mascara in streaks down her face. _Waterproof my ass._ She cleaned her face and decided to go for a run. She usually switched to running inside on the treadmill come late October when the weather began to go south, but this year's mild autumn had prompted her to delay the transition. Originally she had planned on asking Sam to run with her today, as if they were some kind of dorky married couple or something, but now all she wanted was the time to herself to think. Or not think. Either way she just wanted to be alone with her mp3 player, letting the songs she's loved since her high school years throw her into autopilot. Besides, Sam was still out cold, and she couldn't bring herself to wake him. She slipped into some track pants and a hoodie, and headed out.

* * *

><p>When Sam woke up to find himself alone, he took it as a positive sign. If Jules had gone out for her usual run then she was continuing her regular routine, which Sam considered to be better than her simply moping all day. He showered and dressed, then went downstairs to read the paper while waiting for Jules to return. When she did, she was quieter than normal, offering him only the greeting of a half hearted smile.<p>

"How was your run?"

"Fine," she shrugged, then added, "Its finally starting to get cold out."

Sam nodded, gestured to the paper in front of him. "Supposed to snow by the end of the week."

"I hope so. Its halfway through November so its about time."

Sam cringed a little. "I guess so. I'm not particularly looking forward to it though. Adds at least an extra 10 minutes to our mornings to deal with the snow covering the cars."

Jules laughed, not her usual heart warming laugh, but it was a laugh. "I like the snow here, its better than what we had growing up." When Sam just looked confused she continued. "Growing up our winters were always so cold that, while we always had lots of it, the snow was never really wet enough to be any fun. It was never the good packing snow, so it's not like we could build snowmen or anything. That and it was so damn cold out that we didn't bother playing outside."

Sam smiled. Jules didn't often talk about her childhood, so, aside from the fact that she had 4 brothers and had grown up in Alberta, he knew little about it. "So wait, you never built forts or had snowball fights?"

"Well not never, but I could probably count the number of times on one hand. Don't worry though, when I first started at the SRU the guys found out about my lack of snowball fight experience and decided to catch me up. Turns out, I'm a bit of a natural." She grinned, shaking her head. "Poor Ed never saw it coming."

He laughed. He knew she was avoiding the subject of what had happened yesterday, and probably over talking to do so, but he was enjoying her stories so he wasn't about to stop her.

"Anyways," she continued, "I like the snow here. Its pretty, mostly because you can actually see snowflakes and not just the white blur of a blizzard outside." She walked to the fridge and took a quick inventory. "I'm out of food. Dinner at your place?"

"I doubt theres anything there, but I do need clothes so maybe we could stop there then eat out somewhere? If you feel like it that is, we don't have to."

"No, I like that idea. I'd rather not be stuck in the house all day. Plus, I don't feel like cooking and I'm not in a grilled cheese sort of mood."

"Ouch."

She smiled as she walked towards the stairs. "Just teasing. Oh, and Sam? Thanks for last night…listening and all…I needed that."

He just nodded his understanding.

* * *

><p>Jules rummaged through Sam's fridge while she waited for him to finish grabbing clothes at his apartment. Even though they had reservations at a nearby restaurant she was too hungry to wait. She settled on a half eaten bag of baby carrots and turned her attention to Natalie, who had just come back from what looked like a rather successful shopping trip.<p>

"Buy enough stuff?" Jules laughed.

Natalie shook her head. "No. I still have no idea what to wear. I'm freaking out. Is Sam around?"

"In his room, just grabbing some stuff and we'll be out of your hair. Plans with Spike?"

Nat smiled. "Michaelangelo is taking me out for dinner." She rooted through her shopping bags and held two dresses up for Jules' approval. "What do you think? Purple or blue?"

Jules laughed - generally speaking she didn't help people pick out clothes, much less for a date with one of her coworkers. "Blue," she said decisively.

Sam came out of his room, a smiling Natalie rushing past him to go get changed. "What's with her?"

"Dinner date with _Michaelangelo_," Jules responded, smirking. "She's a nervous mess; its cute."

He shook his head as he saw the bag of carrots she was munching on. "I thought we were going out for dinner."

Jules stopped, thought about it, and held the bag out to him. "Appetizer?"

He laughed, and was about to scold her for ruining her dinner when he heard a knock at the door. He answered it, only to see Spike standing at the door. He let him in, trying desperately not to let the protective older brother vibe come on too strong. Spike hesitantly sat on the sofa as he waited for Natalie to be ready to go.

Jules leaned against the kitchen counter. "So, Natalie tells me you're taking her out to dinner? Where are you going?"

"Oh, uh, theres a steakhouse, downtown off Bloor," he said, wringing his hands.

"What time do you think you two will be back?" Sam asked.

"Uh," Spike began nervously. Thankfully he didn't have to answer because Natalie had finally come back into the room.

As the two exchanged greetings, Jules turned to Sam and whispered, "what time will you be back? Come on Sam, she's not in high school."

Sam smirked, and whispered back, "I know that. 'Just trying to figure out if sex on the couch is an option tonight."

Jules fell silent, shocked that he had said that, whispered or not, while his sister and Spike were in the same room.

"Later guys," Nat called as she walked out the door.

Spike turned around to face the two. "Don't worry mom and dad, I'll have her back by curfew," he laughed, before following Natalie out.

Sam snorted, "Can you believe that?"

"Well, you _did_ ask him what time they'd be back. How else is he supposed to take it?"

"I don't know… I _can _tell you one thing, if she was _our_ daughter theres no way in hell she'd be going on a date, let alone dressed like _that_," Sam told her, as he went to grab their coats.

Usually Jules would tell him flat out that she had been the one to pick out the dress, and give him some lecture about how Natalie is a grown woman and can wear what she wants. This time she would let it slide though, especially after he had said something like _our daughter_. The thought of having kids with him far outweighed the importance of being right in her choice of Natalie's outfit.


	20. Table Talk

**A/N: I feel like I haven't updated this in forever... ok, so its been like 3 or 4 days. Still feels like a long time. I blame the fact that I work retail - damn boxing week.  
><strong>**Anywho, Here's the next chapter. Somewhat filler-y if you ask me, but it needed the stuffing. **

* * *

><p>They were seated in a small corner booth at the restaurant, which had a decidedly quirky vibe. It had all the markings of an upscale restaurant, interspersed with oddities to throw them off. There were small glass candle holders situated on crisp white table clothes, which were in odd conflict with the lime green pipes exposed on the ceiling and the purple utensils arranged to form 'W' or 'M' on the restroom doors. At first Jules thought it looked like they had given up halfway through renovations, but the more she looked the more she liked it. The menu was equally diverse. There were casual dishes like 'beef &amp; fries' listed along side things that she had barely heard of, much less eaten.<p>

After their server had taken their drink orders and disappeared to the back of the restaurant she leaned across the table and whispered, "Isn't a quail a baby pigeon?"

Without looking up from his menu Sam smirked and answered, "No, thats squab. Quail is a different kind of bird."

For someone who couldn't cook to save his life he seemed to be rather skilled at the whole fancy menu reading thing. She raised an eyebrow at him, as if to ask _and you know this because…?_

"The General likes to eat at places that cost more than my college education," he mumbled, a hand absently swatting the air, bushing off her questioning look.

"Oh. Is it good? Quail, I mean."

Sam took a quick look around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, then smiled. "In my experience it looks like a small bird died on your plate. Typically you get the whole damn thing to eat so unless you're cool with seeing that-"

She raised a hand to stop him. "Got it. Beef it is."

* * *

><p>After they had finished off their dinner, they sat chatting over coffee, full and happy.<p>

"I still find it weird that Nat and Spike are out on a date."

Jules shook her head at him. "They seem really happy together, Sam. She was all frantic about what to wear, didn't think she bought enough clothes… and Spike seemed terrified of you. He must really like her."

He gave her a skeptical glare. "How does that mean he really likes her?"

She rolled her eyes; she was going to have to spell it out for him. "Sam, if he didn't actually care, wasn't seriously interested, then he wouldn't have put up with you. He would have just dropped her and moved on."

"I guess so…" He shrugged, and changed the subject. He had started going on about something to do with work, though Jules wasn't really listening. Her mind had wandered back to earlier that evening, when he had used the words _our daughter_. It had been ringing in her ears all night. They had yet to have the 'kids' conversation, and up until now she only had brief glances to lean on. He had given her a weird look nearly every time he saw her holding Izzy, from the first time they had met her to more recently when Sophie had stopped by HQ with her. She hadn't been able to decode the looks at the time - she wasn't sure he'd looked at her like that before and it terrified her, made her self conscious, made her blush - but they had left her with the slightest feeling that maybe he was imagining something more than her simply holding their friends' baby.

"Do you want kids?" The words had flown out of her mouth so fast that she then had to resist the urge to clap her hand over her mouth - it would be pointless now anyways.

Sam's eyes widened with shock; he was mid sentence and hadn't expected her to cut him off, much less with something like that. "Where did that come from?" was all he could manage.

She sighed, she'd stepped in it and it was going to be a long night. She regretted saying it, figured she had just ruined their night, but there was no turning back now. "Its just…earlier, when Nat left with Spike… you made a comment about _our daughter_ and it just kind of threw me because we've never talked about having kids and so I had to ask."

"Of course."

She blinked. "Of course?"

"Of course," he repeated calmly. "Of course I want kids. Always have." He paused, took a sip of his coffee. "I'm a little surprised you had to ask."

She stared. He was so casual, so sure. He was talking to her like she had missed some big sign, like those lit up ones they put along the 401 when the weather goes to shit and they need to remind people to drive carefully. Had she? Had she missed some blatantly obvious sign? Was she really that clueless? She shook the thoughts from her head. "Well, how was I supposed to know? Its not like we've ever talked about it so I just… it caught me off guard I guess…" Her eyebrows knitted together in an unfamiliar look of confusion and once again words escaped her mouth before she had the chance to sensor herself. "Do you want them with _me_?"

He had to let out a laugh, setting his drink down on the table in front of them. "Jules, its no secret that _you_ want kids, and to be honest, I wouldn't waste your time. If I didn't feel the same way about having kids I wouldn't be with you; it wouldn't be fair." When his words were greeted with confusion he continued. "Thats a yes, Jules. Of course I want to have kids with _you_. No place I'd rather be, remember?"

"Oh." She fell uncharacteristically silent as a small but genuine smile made its was across her lips. It was met with a bigger smile from Sam.

* * *

><p>After dinner, as Jules had suspected he might, Sam lead them back to his apartment. He cited the 'fact' that he had forgotten socks, and that it was <em>too late<em> to drive _all the way_ to her house. She knew the real reason, but, deciding it was too late in the evening to start _that_ argument, she gave in, met him halfway. She let him take her back to his place, but fully intended to ensure that he was not in a position to ruin Natalie's night when, or if, she came home that night.

Sam made his way to the kitchen, mindlessly scanned the fridge, grabbed a beer for each of them. He sat on the couch, flicked on the tv. He told her he just wanted to catch up on the day's sports, and motioned for her to join him. It was too early for bed anyways, she reasoned, and played along long enough to finish her beer.

"Alright, its past my bedtime." She rose from the couch, set her empty on the counter, and went to get ready for bed. When she returned, she found him with his back to her, creating work for himself. He was emptying the dishwasher, something she had never seen him do even though they had been dating for months. When he finished that, he loaded it with the mess from the sink, _Natalie's mess_, and even wiped down the kitchen counter. Jules rolled her eyes; he was waiting up for his little sister, and she was going to have to fight dirty to stop him. She disappeared into his room for a minute. When she returned to the doorway he was still fussing about, like the parent of a pre-teen who was cutting it dangerously close to curfew.

"Sam, what are you doing?"

He didn't turn around as he answered. "Just cleaning up before bed."

She shook her head. "Sam, you can't wait up for her. She's a big girl."

"I am not waiting up, Jules, I have a lot to do. This place is a mess."

She sighed. "Alright Sam, I'm going to make this easy for you. You can stay up waiting for your sister to get back from her date all you want, but just so you're aware, while you're doing that I'll be in your bed. All alone. Which is a damn shame, because I'm trying out some new sleepwear."

He turned around to see that she was only wearing one of his hockey jerseys. That was all the convincing he needed.


	21. Day Shift

**A/N: Alright so basically I wanted to get to include Spike more (he's growing on me for some reason, especially 1-2 season funny Spike), and I wanted to come up with some more SRU/Police stuff, and also to get to play up the fact that Sam & Jules now work together but separately and yeah... You'll see how the different teams thing comes up... Anyways, not a long chapter, which I'll make up for by posting the next one right away (just had to cut it off so that it wasn't ridiculously long.)**

* * *

><p>It was a little past 4am when Natalie Braddock snuck back into her brother's apartment. Careful not to make any noise, she removed her heels in the hallway before entering. She made sure not to jingle her keys as she removed them from the lock, and cringed slightly when the deadbolt made a loud 'click' sound. She took her hands off the door and was backing slowly into the apartment when the kitchen light flicked on. <em>Crap. <em>She turned around nervously, eyes clenched shut as she was afraid to see what kind of look was on her brother's face. She expected him to be standing there with that condescending glare he used to give her when she got into trouble in high school, in college, and after college when she spent her time travelling and 'living for the day' as she called it.

"Good morning."

Her eyes shot open and she jumped as she recognized Jules' voice. "Oh my gosh… I thought you were Sam…"

Jules smiled. "Relax, he's still sleeping, his team is working evenings this week."

Natalie relaxed a little, setting her purse on the coffee table.

"You're back early," Jules commented.

"Michaelangelo had to get up for work, and I have no interest in being alone in that house with his mother. You're up early."

Jules nodded, sipped her coffee. "Spike and I are on the same team…so, same shifts. You not a fan of Mrs Scarlatti?"

Natalie shook her head, regretting the way her earlier comment sounded. "Its not like that. She's awesome, such a sweet woman, always asking me over for dinner, asking how long I can stay… its just… its hard when she asks me things like when I'll be giving her grandbabies when I haven't even had that conversation with her son, you know?"

Jules laughed loudly, but stopped herself with a hand over her mouth, not wanting to wake Sam. "Oh, I know. A few years back I went to pick Spike up for a team outing… we were going to dinner or something I don't even remember. Anyways, I got there a few minutes early and Spike wasn't quite ready so his mom invited me in, gave me the once over, and started in with the questions. And I was just a coworker. I can't imagine what she's like with you if she knows you two are dating."

Natalie laughed. "I'm sure she means well, its just really intimidating."

"Well she'll soon be in Italy so you'll at least get to sleep in when you stay over at Spike's place…"

"True… although I'm not so sure how Michaelangelo is going to handle that."

Jules just nodded, knowing what kind of changes Spike was facing.

* * *

><p>Team one had gone nearly their entire shift before getting a hot call. When they finally did, they found themselves at an abandoned old two storey house where neighbours claimed to have heard shots fired. Jules and Ed were clearing the basement of the building, Raf and Nick were on the main floor, searching each room cautiously for the source of the alleged gunshots.<p>

Nick was the first to speak over the comms. "Guys, we've found the gunshot victim, he's gone. Possible suicide. Spike I'm sending you a picture to ID."

Spike nodded, turning to Greg who was next to him in the truck. He soon had the man's name and background information. "Ok looks like he's the owner of the house, a James Meyer, and we've got a long list of offences here…" As he read off the usual suspects - theft under, breaking and entering, involvement in an organized crime group - he stopped as he found something else. "Guys, our guy had a background in explosives… Keep your eyes open the house may be booby trapped."

As Spike and Greg shared a nervous glance the tension in the truck rose.

Ed and Jules took turns going into rooms on either side of the hallway, covering each other as they went. Jules ducked into a room on the right, Ed keeping an eye out down the hall as she did so. She noticed an open space behind the door and closed the door slightly behind her to so she could see into the space better. The door was heavier than she expected, and it slammed shut.

Ed whirled around. "Jules? What just happened?"

Jules groaned. "Stupid door was heavier than I thought, and there's no handle on this side of…oh god, don't try to open it Ed."

The entire team froze in their spot, eyebrows raising.

Ed stopped with his hand in mid air. "Jules, what's going on?"

"Spike I'm sending you some pictures. Looks like Meyer has been busy."


	22. Overheard

Ed was getting impatient. "Whats going on Jules?"

Spike froze as the images loaded on his screen. Greg took in the look on his face, and was about to tap him on the shoulder to bring him out of his pause when Spike finally spoke. "The door looks like it's rigged. Jules can you get more pictures? More light, maybe?"

"I'll do what I can…" she said as she pulled out her flashlight, carefully balancing it between her teeth while she kept her phone steady with both hands. Now was not the time for poor photography.

Spike sat patiently in the truck, waiting for more pictures to load onto the screen in front of him. In a moment of doubt he switched off his headset and turned to Greg, who did the same. "Boss, I don't…this is…it's too..."

Greg placed a hand on Spike's shoulder. "You can do this. Talk her through it. She'll be alright."

"Spike, third picture, that thing the blue wires go into…"

"Stay the hell away from it. I'll talk you through disarming everything else first, then that should be safe to deal with. Until then, avoid it like the plague," Spike instructed.

"Or you know, avoid it like its going to blow if those wires wiggle?" Jules asked with a sarcastic tone.

"Exactly. Now, that set of wires in the first picture. Looks like there are a few clear dummy wires but I can only guess from here, you'll need to figure out which ones ground out and which don't. How well did you do in explosives class at the academy?"

"Top of my class Spike, but I was an overachieving bookworm, my field experience is somewhat lacking…"

"Thats ok. Just take a few deep breaths to combat the adrenaline and stop your hands from shaking."

Jules looked down to see her hands were in fact shaking, and was only momentarily surprised that Spike had known that.

"Alright," he continued. "Work left to right, just like you're reading something. It will help develop a routine…"

As Spike continued talking Jules through the tangled web of wires in front of her Winnie had stopped mid sentence minutes earlier in a conversation she had been having with Team Three back at HQ.

"Winnie?" Todd waved a hand in front of her face. "Whats going on Winnie?"

She gulped, unsure of what to say. She had flashes of Lew running through her mind, and was wondering how Spike was able to stay so calm. She had been afraid to move initially, as if her physical actions might affect the outcome. Now, with Team Three, Sam included, gathered around her, she couldn't figure out what to say. Instead of speaking, she simply turned on the radio so that they could hear what she was hearing.

Sam froze as he pieced together the conversation, and the entire team listened in in silence.

"Ok first set is done."

"Good. Where are you going next?"

Jules frowned to herself. "How am I supposed to know?"

Spike shook his head. "Profile it, Jules. The tangle you just dealt with was on the far right, clearly the last part he put together because of the way its attached to all the other clusters of wires and explosives. Now, you're the subject. Where did you start?"

"Top left, second picture I sent you. You want me to work backwards through this?"

Spike nodded, then quickly said 'yes' when he realized she couldn't see him. Upstairs Raf and Nick had finished their sweep and exited the building, joining Greg and Spike in the truck.

Jules paused her work for a moment, realizing her team leader had been unusually silent for the last several minutes. "Ed? You still out there?"

"Yeah Jules, I'm here, right outside the door."

"You shouldn't be. Whats that thing Spike is always ranting about?"

Ed let out a reluctant laugh. "Only one man down range? Does that count here considering you're a-"

"Finish that sentence, Ed. I dare you."

Both teams let out a laugh, the mood instantly lightening. Ed mumbled something about ok and made his way out of the building as well. Jules turned her attention back to the tangled mess in front of her.

The team had determined the house to be empty, and instructed the Uni's to secure a perimeter to keep it that way.

Jules, with Spike's voice in her ear, found herself working at a rapid pace, almost on autopilot. She had found a pattern in the way the wires were assembled, and had subsequently developed her own pattern of disassembling them. Noticing that Spike was the only one talking she crinkled her nose. "Sarge? Raf? Nick? Ed? You guys didn't change channels on me or anything did you?"

Raf smiled nervously. "Nah Jules we're still here. Just letting you work in peace."

"Well stop it. I grew up in a house with four brothers - I don't handle silence well." Her voice quivered slightly, and the team made an effort to comment more for her benefit. "Spike, something's weird here…"

Spike sat up a little straighter in his chair. "What is it?"

"This is _very_ routine…too routine…I'm missing something…"

Greg interjected. "Alright Jules go carefully, if you have doubts stop, take more pictures, send them to us so we can help you 're not in there alone."

Jules nodded, and continued disarming the tangled mess of a bomb. Finally, there was only one switch left to disarm, the one Spike had so delicately instructed her to stay the hell away from. "Spike, I'm back at the box I asked about before…"

"Ok, that box looks like its the controlling aspect of the rigging of the door. While you've disarmed most of the bomb there's still potential for explosion in there, so you're going to have to figure out that box. One of those wires has got to go, but from here I can't tell which one it is."

"Great." She rolled her eyes. "So its literally a wire 'A' or wire 'B' type situation, where no one knows which one is which. Great." She went about describing everything she saw to Spike, sending him pictures the entire time. Ultimately they were both arguing different theories on each wire, and the tension was beginning to wear on their calm.

Sam continued to stand where he was at HQ. Donna had removed the water bottle he had been holding from his hand, afraid he might squeeze it so hard he hurt himself. He wasn't sure how long he had been standing there, how long it had been going on. He was terrified, as was the rest of his team. But he was a different kind of scared, and they all knew it. He could lose her today. Lose her forever. He was torn - he didn't know if he wanted to be back on team one where he would be on scene, where if that bomb went off he would be able to feel the blast that took her away, or if he would rather be back at HQ, only able to experience it through the radio. He wasn't ready to lose her; there were way too many things they still hadn't done. All they had really managed to accomplish was a steady, and finally public, relationship. Suddenly he felt like maybe they had wasted too much time sneaking around - maybe he had switched teams too late. Maybe he should have just quit that day after Toth had lead her to his door so that they could have began living that much sooner. Either way, now all he could do was stand there, listening intently as he heart beat out of his chest.

"Ok, you know what? I'm cutting the one on the left."

"You sure about that Jules?" Greg's voice was hoarse, full of concern.

"Its not a clear choice…" Spike mumbled to no one in particular.

"Call it a hunch Boss but its like Spike said - it fits. It goes against the rest of the pattern here, as does the mechanism its attached to…"

"Jules if thats not it…" Ed began.

Jules groaned as she noticed her stomach growling. "Ed if it's not it I blow up. If it is, the bomb is disarmed. And if I do nothing I starve to death in this nasty ass basement. Did I mention that there's a rat in here with me?"

"Jules it's just-"

"Doesn't matter, cut it already. Theres still no handle on this side of the door so can someone please come get me now?"


	23. I'm Ok

**A/N: Thank you for all your reviews! I'm glad you guys liked the last chapter... This one just sort of a completion of the last one, and prepping for the next one... which by the way I wrote as a potential one shot like 2 months ago and have been trying to find space in this story for it ever since... perhaps I'll post it today too... **

* * *

><p>They opted to send Spike in to get Jules, just in case there were any additional booby traps to be disarmed. There weren't, and he was able to get the door open to let her out. When he found her she was smiling, though she was still shaking. They exited the building and met up with the rest of their team, where they were both greeted with pats on the back, and a few Jules style hugs because, well, it was a tough day. Jules and Spike rode back to HQ together. It was silent for most of the ride.<p>

Spike interrupted it. "How you doing over there?"

Jules gave a half smile. "Well, my hands have stopped shaking, so thats nice…" She looked down at her hands. "What about you? Are you ok?"

Spike furrowed his brow. "I'm fine Jules, I wasn't the one locked in the bomb bound room, remember?"

Jules tilted her head at him. "You mean to tell me you were fine being the one someone depended on to talk them through disarming a bomb to save their life? Come on Spike, I know what you were thinking about..."

Spike got defensive. "Oh, so you're psychic now?"

Jules shook her head, a little annoyed with his short temper. "Actually I know because I was there too, and I was thinking about the exact same thing as you. You can't tell me it didn't make you think about Lew. Come on, Spike."

"Ok, so maybe I did, so what?"

"You miss him."

"Of course I do but-"

"Me too. You don't talk about him much anymore…its weird."

He shrugged. "Just not sure what to say about him I guess…"

Jules nodded, then smiled. "Remember when he demanded we go clubbing? We weren't there five minutes before he disappeared into a sea of girls and wasn't seen for the rest of the night."

Spike laughed. "Yeah, I remember. The ladies loved him… it made him a surprisingly terrible wing man."

Jules grinned at the memory of the two men trying to meet girls on their nights off, and using free time at the barn to practice on Jules. Lew once tried to run a routine so poorly designed she told him he'd never meet anyone. She shared the memory with Spike, who seemed to have recovered from the guilt that resurfaced at the memory of how Lew died. Jules was glad to have helped him with that - the guilt didn't belong there then and it certainly didn't now.

* * *

><p>The call and following debrief had run so late that Team One left HQ at the same time as Team Three. Aside from passing each other in the hall, where Sam had given a professional 'good job' comment to Jules, the two hadn't really gotten a chance to talk to each other. They drove back to her house, an unspoken agreement based on who had the tougher day, in their separate cars. Sam, still struggling with the emotions that stirred within him, white knuckled the steering wheel the entire way to the point where he managed to leave nail marks in the leather. All he wanted to do was get home as soon as possible, and, had she not been driving in front of him rendering it pointless to do so, he would have broken every traffic law possible in the process.<p>

As luck would have it, he got stuck at a red light when she didn't, so by the time he got there she was already in the house going through the kitchen looking for a snack. He walked into the house, haphazardly dropping his gym bag on the stairs before stopping at the entrance to the kitchen. He simply stood there, staring her down as she asked him if he wanted anything to eat. When her questions were greeted with silence, she turned around to look at him.

"Sam? You ok?"

He just stood there, looking lost. She wasn't sure if she had ever seen him quite so… she wasn't sure what the word was for it. That look he was giving her… it was different from the look on his face when she woke up after being shot, different from the look on his face after she had fallen off the media tower.

"We could hear the whole thing over the radio at Winnie's desk and I just…I…"

She saw his eyes welling with tears and walked over to stand in front of him, taking one of his hands in hers. "Sam, look at me. I'm ok. I'm fine, see?" She moved their joined hands to over her heart so he could see for himself that it was still beating. "Still here Sam, not going anywhere. I'm ok, I promise."

"I thought I was going to lose you…" he whispered.

She paused, looked at him. "Sam, you know we face this stuff every day, right?"

"You don't disarm a bomb everyday, Jules." His voice wavered and he began shaking slightly, his emotions finally taking control of him. "I mean at least when you got shot it happened and it was over and you were ok and we all knew that. But today we knew what there was down there and that you wouldn't be ok if it went off and all I could do was stand there and its just…theres so much we…I mean we haven't…"

She nodded, but gave him a serious look, nervous about where this conversation was heading. "Its my job. Both of our jobs. You know this Sam and I'm not about to-"

"Stop. Jules, just stop. I'm not about to ask you to quit, or anything like that. I'm just… I need to be sure you're ok because for a while there…" He exhaled hard and squished her into a near suffocating hug, kissing her hair.

She nodded, and let him have his moment to reaffirm her presence. Finally she pulled her head back slightly. "Sam? Think you could let go of me for a bit? I can't breathe."

He laughed and loosened his grip on her, leading her back to the fridge when he heard her stomach growling. "Disarming bombs seems to be some appetizing work."

She laughed back, reaching into the fridge for some salad she had made the day before.

* * *

><p>The rest of the week passed without incident. Team one had 3 more day shifts left before they started evenings, team two with 2 more evening shifts before starting days. With no shared days off in sight Sam and Jules had resorted to spending time together whenever possible. She would wait up for him at night, and he would get up to sit with her while she had breakfast before going back to sleep for a few more hours.<p>

Jules had tried desperately to stay awake that night, but was failing miserably. The phone awoke her from her nap on the couch.

She groaned. "Hello?"

Sam cursed on the other end of the phone. "Shit, I woke you up, didn't I?"

She rubbed at her eyes. "Hmm on the couch though so not such a bad thing… what time is it?"

"A little after eleven. Anyways I was just calling to let you know I'll probably be home late - we have to wait until team two gets back - so you should probably just go upstairs to bed now."

She sighed, knowing he was right. "Yeah ok. I wasn't going to be awake when you got here anyways. Did you know we had 3 warrants today?"

"I heard… I'll be there when I can."

They ended their conversation and she dragged her tired body up the stairs to her bed, and settled in for the night.


	24. Snow

_Ouch._

Something scratched her. No, something is continuing to scratch her. Mouse? If there is a mouse… well, she knew she'd live to regret the day she let Sam bring those god awful tortilla chips to bed with him.

_Poke_.

Ok, no, mice don't poke. _What the - ?_

"Jules."

Suddenly she wished it was a mouse. At least she could pick the mouse up by the tail and take it outside… or kill it… she wasn't sure which would have been easier. Sadly it was not a mouse. No, instead it was _him_. That bed dominating, chip eating-

"Jules?" His not so hushed whisper grew louder. "Jules, get up."

She had her doubts about a mouse but she knew she could kill him. Yes, him she could kill. If she killed him she could reclaim her bed, finally get some sleep. Had he forgotten what her day was today? 3 warrants served, as well as 4 hours with SIU because things hadn't gone as planned on the last warrant.

_Poke._

"Jules!"

She sat straight up in bed, her face in a snarly knot. "What?"

He threw her a hoodie. "Come with me."

_For the love of god… _"What? Come with you where? Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Yes, 2:35am. Now come."

"Sam, I had a lousy day at work, all I want to do is sleep. Now, leave me alone." She pulled the blankets back over her head and laid back down.

All but defeated he walked to her side of the bed, and forcefully, if not impatiently, removed the blankets. "Up. Now. This is important."

She grit her teeth - she knew all hope of a good night's sleep had gone out the window when he had told her what time it was. Now it would simply be a game of 'if i go to sleep now, I'll get 3 hours sleep…'. Rolling her eyes at his smug smile she pulled on the hoodie.

He grabbed her by the arm and practically dragged her down the stairs, where he instructed her to put on her hiking boots and lead her outside. It was not quite winter, or at least it didn't look like it. In spite of that peppy weather girl on tv it had yet to snow, though the temperature had been consistently in the negatives.

"Sam, its freezing. Why are we outside?" The irritation in her voice rising.

"Shhh!"

"Shhh? Shhh?"

"Yes. Shhh." He held her hand and took her down the street, around the corner, down that street, around the other corner… she was sure he was taking her around in a circle. Was he drunk? Sleep walking? Maybe he had snapped - she'd heard about it happening; it happened all the time. Cops that just couldn't cope, former soldiers who couldn't live with themselves. She ran through her mental list of PTSD symptoms - did he have that? He could, though she didn't think so. Then again maybe she was just too close. Maybe this was just the beginning of the end of his mental health. Maybe- She stopped walking. No, he had stopped walking. She looked around - swings, slide, monkey bars… they were in a park.

"What are we doing here?"

He smiled. "We used to come here before… back when we first started dating. The first time, I mean. Do you remember that?"

She squinted.

"We used to come here, sit on the swings, or the ground if it wasn't too cold, and just talk. You said you liked it because it was somewhere that wasn't either of our houses where we could just be normal, just be us, without worrying about getting caught. It was always so quiet… was like we were the only two people on the planet."

She smiled, shivered. "I remember all that, but that doesn't explain why we're here. Sam, we don't have to hide anymore…"

He ignored her. "I remember the night you made me sit here for hours, saying it was going to be the first snow and you wanted to see it. I swear I had frost bite on my ass after that night, and still no snow."

Now she laughed, the image of him attempting to warm his rear on the walk back to her house replaying in her mind. "You did not get frost bite you big baby. Now can we go home? I can't feel my face."

"Not yet. Its supposed to snow."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh good, so this is some kind of revenge." Her gaze drifted upwards at the sky. It was pitch black, a few stars attempting to make an appearance, but not doing so well. It might have been cloudy, she couldn't tell. As the wind picked up she caught a chill and closed her eyes to try to focus on staying warm. He'd dragged her out of bed in her track pants and tank top, and only let her put on her boots and hoodie, so the whole _mind over matter_ thing seemed like her only option. Wasn't working. She opened her eyes in time to see the snowflakes, whirling down at her. Huge flakes, fluffy ones, the best ones. The kind that would stay in her hair without melting, at least until she got back to the house. The kind it was too cold for in the Alberta winters she dealt with growing up. The kind that she loved; the kind that she could use to make snowballs to throw at Sam while he cleared off his car in the morning. She let out a laugh. "Ok, its snowing. Can we go now?" When he didn't answer right away she moved her gaze from the sky and looked to her left, where she was sure he had been, but he wasn't there. A little nervous at his absence she called his name again as she turned around, "Sam-" her breath caught in her throat.

She found him, kneeling on the cold ground of the park, velvet box in hand. Her eyes widened, her jaw fell slack.

His hands shook from cold, but his voice was steady. "Jules, I love you. I love you more than I ever thought possible. You're all I want, and more than I've ever wanted. We took a long time to get here and I don't want to waste any more time. So, will you marry me?"


	25. Spilling the Coffee Beans

**A/N: GAH! 4 days between updates... That *may* be a record for me... Anyways, I'm sorry that last week's spree of updates was followed by (what I consider) an unusually long wait. Mostly my motivation came from wanting to get to the previous chapter, and once that was posted I crashed hardcore and had to do some of the sleep thing, and, as my work week begins on fridays, I had to do some of the 'responsible adult' thing.  
>So, here is 'Spilling the [coffee] beans." Beans get spilled, and so does some coffee. (I'm super lame with the puns, I know.)<strong>

* * *

><p>He rolled with a grunt and reached over her sleeping form to hit the snooze button. She was still fast asleep, smiling. No, wait, she was beaming. <em>Is it possible to beam in your sleep?<em> If so, that was what she was doing. He ran a hand along her forehead and down her cheek, not wanting to wake her too roughly. "Jules," he whispered. When she simply let out a lazy moan he moved his hand to her arm, rubbing in an effort to wake her up faster. "Jules, sweetheart, time to get up," he told her, placing a soft kiss on her cheek. When she clenched her eyes shut he let out a small laugh. "Julianna, you need to be in for team workout in an hour, and if you're late you'll be dealing with the wrath of Ed Lane."

She groaned, knowing he was right. "I just… I was having the best dream…" she mumbled as her eyes fluttered open.

Now he beamed. He reached for her hand, holding it up for her to see. "Not a dream," he told her, wiggling her newly decorated ring finger.

* * *

><p>When she finished showering she found him in the kitchen. <em>Quelle surprise.<em>

"So, you going to tell the guys on shift today?"

"Hmm, they might catch on. I mean, they're guys, and guys don't usually notice jewellery, but to their credit they _are_ police officers… Wait, you mean to tell me none of them know?"

He shook his head. "No, none of them can keep a secret. Well, Wordy knows, but that's because I ran into him leaving the jewellers and I couldn't talk my way out of that one..."

She narrowed her eyes, slightly confused. "You didn't even tell Spike?"

"Oh yeah, because Spike can keep a secret. Please, he would have bounced straight into your locker room and told you."

She sighed, she supposed he was right - somehow the grown men she worked with, while consistently labelled the city's finest, had a tendency to gossip like preteen girls. She thought a moment, then looked at him. "Do you _mind_ if I tell them without you?"

"Mind? Hell, I'd prefer it. Somehow I think Sarge, or even Ed, might want to have a chat with me I'd rather delay for the time being." He remembered the time Ed had threatened him in the locker room because he thought he was cheating - he would sure as hell have a word or two of warning to instil 'the fear' in him now that he was marrying Jules. She laughed, and he smiled as he stood in front of her refrigerator. "You have no food. Seriously, we might be better off staying at my place tonight."

She laughed. "Only because your place is closer to all the take out places."

He shrugged. "If you want take out we can get take out…"

She rolled her eyes with a laugh. "Typical Sam. Why cook when you can dial?" She dug through the fridge doors until she found enough fruit to make a breakfast smoothy. It would pale in comparison to her usual mango, but she figured she could make blackberries and bananas work together somehow.

He cringed at the combination she was tossing into the blender. "You know, my place is next to a juice bar… if we stayed there tonight you could just buy breakfast tomorrow…"

She rolled her eyes. "Sam, its a frozen yogurt shop that happens to make smoothies. That is not the same." As she poured her smoothie into a travel mug a thought occurred to her. "So, tell me something: when we're married are we going to live in the same place or are we going to continue alternating weeks between here and your apartment?"

He gave her a toothy grin. "Do you realize you've said 'when we're married' eleven times since you woke up this morning?"

She fought off a smile. "I don't see how that answers my question…"

He laughed, and gave an overdramatic sigh, with a tone of voice to match. "Alright, well, when we're married, I suppose we could live together."

She smirked. "Ok. Where? I mean are we just going to move into one of our places or did you want to-" The buzzing of her phone cut her off. "Shit. My turn to stop for coffee, I've got to get going. Pick this up later?"

"Oh, absolutely," he smiled, walking her to the door.

* * *

><p>As it turned out, guy behaviour won out over cop instincts, and nobody noticed the ring as Jules handed out their coffees. Or at least not that they mentioned. So she didn't point it out, unsure of how to approach the issue. Guys were different from girls, and although she had plenty of experience dealing with guys she didn't have any experience telling them that she was getting married. She thought of Winnie, and how, if she had really wanted to, she could have simply made sure to use her left hand to hand her her coffee, making sure the ring was visible to her. Winnie would have been an ideal way to bring it to the attention of her teammates, although it seemed incredibly passive aggressive and not Jules' style.<p>

So instead, she let it go unnoticed. She always took her jewellery off for workout, but she figured she could leave that particular ring on, at least for today. Again, no one noticed. Finally, when it came time to put her proper uniform on she had to part with the ring - she had serious doubts that she could fit the cool gloves over it without it getting caught on something. She placed it carefully in her locker, and left the room.

Soon enough they were sitting in the briefing room, waiting for Sarge to announce what fresh hell of a day they would be facing. He stood at the head of the table, carefully taking in their faces. They all looked tired, and worn down, likely the effects of the previous day's endless warrants and SIU interviews. Ed looked like his usual self, as determined to bring up the moods of the team as ever. Raf, who had worn off his exhausted rookie phase simply looked exhausted. Spike's only real sense of enthusiasm for the day came along with the intense explanation he was giving Jules of some new part he had ordered for Babycakes. Nick sat somewhat distanced from the team, still unsure of where he stood in the group. Then there was Jules, who, while looking thoroughly exhausted, actually seemed thrilled to be there, even with Spike's rambling. _Weird_, he thought.

"Alright guys well, we've had a busy week…" He paused to let their faces sink as they imagined all the miserable tasks he could be dumping on them. "So after yesterday I think we all could use a break, so I'm going to go ahead and suggest we go on patrol. Objections?" His last question was lost among a round of cheers, and he simply laughed. "Alright, pairings for the day… Spike and Raf, Eddie and Jules, and Nick you're with me."

They quickly duked out who got to patrol where, and were off to the SUVs. As they headed to the doors Greg pulled Ed aside.

Ed looked concerned. "Whats going on?"

Greg shook his head. "If you find out what's going on with Jules, let me know."

Ed nodded. He had noticed her uncharacteristically good mood too.

* * *

><p>After stopping for their second coffees of the day Ed took the wheel. "So Jules, what's going on?"<p>

She looked up from where she was staring out the window. "Nothing on my side. You see anything?"

"Not that," he laughed. "Whats going on with you? Something's up."

She shrugged as her phone beeped. She quickly read the text and tried to put it back in her pocket. Sadly, her fearless team leader had faster reflexes than she thought, and seized the phone from her hands.

He read the text out loud, like a teacher who had just caught a student texting in class. "Oh, a text from Sammy-poo. '_Did you tell them?'_ Tell who what?"

"Uh…"

"Jules."

"Ed, just drive."

"Ok, I'll drive. Just know I won't be letting you out of this car until you tell me what that's about."

They drove for another few minutes until she couldn't hide the smile. "So uh, Sam asked me to marry him."

"What? !" Ed slammed on the breaks, sending Jules' coffee all over her.

"Jesus! Drive much?"

"I'm sorry, but seriously? And you didn't say anything sooner, because what? Do you just like keeping secrets from the team now?"

"Hey thats not fair!"

Ed pressed the comm in his ear. "Hey Greg, got something."

Jules groaned as she listened helplessly while Ed retold the entire conversation, in detail, to the rest of her team. There was a series of hoots and hollers from the rest of the guys, until Ed regained control of the conversation. "Alright, now down to business. Spike: time check."

"I've got 6 weeks so that means… everyone owes the Boss fifty bucks."

Jules' jaw dropped. "Excuse me?"

Spike laughed. "Well, not you Jules, just the people involved in the bet…"

She glared at Ed. "Bet? !"


	26. There was a Bet

Donna and Winnie were deep in conversation at the desk but looked up in time to see Jules walking into HQ, Ed lagging a few paces behind. Checking the clock Winnie looked confused. "You two are back kind of early…"

Jules frowned. "Officer Lane here forgot how to drive," she said, pulling off her jacket to expose the large coffee stain on her shirt.

Donna's eyes widened. "Eeek, you need to borrow an extra shirt?"

"No, I'm sure I have one in my locker, thanks though."

As Jules went to the locker room to change, Ed reached the desk.

Donna shook her head at Ed. "Quite a number you did on her uniform… how'd you manage that?"

"She told me, it surprised me, the brakes were hit, the coffee flew."

Sam came around the corner and joined the group, trying to catch up on why Ed was there when he had heard team one was on patrol.

Donna and Winnie looked at each other in confusion. "Told you what?" Winnie asked.

Ed shot a look at Sam. "Apparently, they're getting married."

The girls' jaws dropped, then Donna shook her head. "You proposed? You couldn't have waited another 2 weeks? Dammit, I owe the boss like $50…"

Jules had come out of the locker room in time to hear Donna's last comment. "You were in on that too? !"

Sam furrowed his brow. "In on what? $50 for what?"

Jules rolled her eyes. "There was a bet."

"A bet?"

"A bet. When you switched teams they took bets on how long until you proposed."

"And the Boss was in on it?"

Jules shrugged. "Evidently he won."

* * *

><p>After spending the afternoon at a hot call at a shoe factory, Team One decided it was a good night to stop by the Goose. Jules sat at a table with Greg while Spike stepped outside to call to see when Natalie would be arriving, and Ed, Raf, and Nick were in the process of ordering another round at the bar.<p>

"I've got to say Boss, I was shocked that you would be in on a bet like that."

Greg smiled. "People were taking guesses, and I didn't think any of them were close so I figured why not? Paid for the nachos didn't it?"

Jules laughed. "Fair enough… what did everyone else guess?"

"Hmm…" Greg thought for a moment. "Eddie said something like 6 months, Donna had 2, Spike said 7, and I think Raf had 1 month so thats why he was in sort of a bad mood a few weeks back - first one to lose and all that."

"How did you know he was going to do it?"

Greg took a sip of his coke. "Well, he gave up a spot on team one, gave up working with you everyday all so you two didn't need to sneak around anymore… generally speaking, you don't do that unless you want something more."

Jules nodded, and was about to say something in reply but was interrupted by the arrival of Natalie. She came in with her purse full of bridal magazines, insisting that she and Jules get to work ASAP. Jules stared in horror, unsure of how to respond. As the rest of the team returned to the table she looked around for help, but they all just smirked as Natalie began to ramble about venues and dresses and centrepieces.

Natalie excused herself briefly to go to the bar, and Spike laughed at the pile of magazines she had thrust upon Jules.

Jules glared at him. "Laugh all you want Scarlatti. Just remember she's _your_ girlfriend and sooner or later..."

Spike stopped laughing, swallowed somewhat nervously.

* * *

><p>As Jules walked into her house later that night the exhaustion of little sleep the night before, a long day on shift, and an even longer evening at the Goose, caught up with her. She dropped the pile of magazines Nat had forced on her on the kitchen table and dragged her feet upstairs to her bed. Too tired to look very far, she put on the first of Sam's shirts that she found and climbed in to bed.<p>

When Sam arrived home he wasn't surprised to find the house in darkness - he had, after all, woken Jules up at 2:30 in the morning, and she didn't get a whole lot of sleep after that. Not wanting to wake her, he decided to leave the lights up while he walked up stairs. He used his cell phone to light the way to the washroom and back, determined to make it to bed without a sound. He was doing quite well until he didn't see her pile of clothes on the floor, and stumbled slightly, hissing out a curse or two as he regained his balance.

Jules opened one eye in search of the source of the sounds that had awoken her. "Sam?"

"Yeah… fell over _your _clothes… How was the Goose?"

She yawned. "Pretty good. Natalie showed up with a billion magazines. She's dubbed herself wedding planner and was going on and on about what's in style and what's not…"

"How does she know we're engaged?"

"She said your mom called her… And I guess that means you called your mom?"

"Yeah… this morning after you left for work… she lost her mind." Seeing Jules start to frown he added. "In a good way. She's very excited. Anyways about Natalie, just stand your ground and do what you want, don't let her talk you out of anything."

Jules nodded slowly. "And if I don't know what I want?"

Sam squinted a little in confusion. "Don't girls plan their weddings when they're like 12?"

She let out a sigh. "I didn't."

"I thought you wanted to get married…"

"I do, its just… this is going to sound stupid…" She sighed as he looked at her curiously. "I always wanted to get married, still do. I just don't think i connected getting married with having a wedding…I have no idea what I want in a wedding…"

"We'll figure out what we want," he told her reassuringly, climbing in to bed beside her. "So… living arrangements…"

She smiled. "I've been thinking about it and I don't think I want to live in an apartment, not when I've been in a house for so long."

He nodded. "I agree, I'm not a huge fan of apartment life, but I don't think I want to live here. I want a real backyard, and yours is tiny."

"Thats fine, I don't think I want you living here anyway."

"What?" Sam looked disappointed.

"No no not like that… I just meant that this is _my _house, and I was thinking I'd rather we find somewhere that would be _our_ house."

Sam grinned. "Sounds good to me."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: whoa. Ok, seriously sorry about the wait on this one... School has been kicking my ass and work is being a miserable beast this week too... I know, I know, excuses excuses. On top of that, every time I sit down to write I end up spewing out yet another chapter of _M__emories_, and this poor story gets neglected. :(  
>I'm even more sorry that this is more filler than killer, so to speak. Basically just bridging from the engagement to other stuff... *hopefully* I will be posting another update tomorrow nightmonday morning :) assuming it's ready, of course.  
>The plan from now on is to try to update at least one a week. I'll write as much as possible each week, and post as much as is finished because, well, once its written I have to share. <strong>


	27. Planning

**A/N: EEEk I haven't updated in like over a week... not cool :( anyways, explanation for that is of course that my class on organized crime is kicking my ass. Also there are some other fanfiction ideas kicking around my head that I've had to spit out before writing anymore of this (details on my profile page thinger)... any who, here's a short chapter, I promise the next one will be longer.**

* * *

><p>Jules sat in her kitchen, the table in front of her littered with papers, while Sam finished unloading the dishwasher.<p>

"I'm making a list," Jules announced, scribbling a title at the top of the paper in front of her.

Sam raised an eyebrow as he looked up from the drawer where he had been sorting cutlery. "Of?"

"Of things we want in a house. Now that we've sorted out the money stuff we need to figure out what we want, then we can look for it."

"Why can't we just go look at houses until we find one we like?" Sam sighed, the process was exhausting. "Can't we just go through houses until something… I don't know, speaks to us?"

Jules rolled her eyes. "Yeah ok. And while you're touring every house in the GTA I'll be at the range taking out my frustration. Come on, what do you want the house to have?" When Sam just shrugged she flipped over the paper and titled the other side. "Ok, fine. What _don't_ you want? What can you absolutely not live with?"

"Rats."

"Sam!"

He smirked. "Ok. We need more than one bathroom."

"Yes," she pointed at him with her pen. "We definitely need more than one bathroom."

Sam thought as he moved on to the plates. "I'd rather not live in a townhouse… or even a semi."

"You realize that's going to make it more expensive, and we'll probably need to move farther from work…"

"Have you met your neighbours? The ones who complain if the microwave beeps past 11pm?"

Jules nodded and picked up her pen. "Detached. Got it. Bedrooms?"

"Definitely going to need one of those," Sam smirked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Jules simply narrowed her eyes, obviously not impressed.

Sam's smirk disappeared as he got her point. "Ok, well I think we need at least three, two could work but that would be a bare minimum."

Jules raised an eyebrow, moving her pen away from the paper. "Three? What, are you planning on bringing Natalie?"

"No," he laughed. "I just think we should have a guest room."

"Even though nearly everyone we know lives in town? Alrighty then…" She scribbled it down on her list. "Wait, that accounts for two bedrooms, whats the third for?"

"Kids," he said simply, stacking a pile of bowls. "Unless you plan on moving again in a few years."

"Oh, good point..." she tried not to let him see her blush as she turned her attention back to her list, slightly embarrassed that she hadn't thought of that herself. "Ok I think thats enough of a place to start, I'll call the realtor tomorrow to see if she can find anything like that. Now… wedding."

Sam sighed as he settled into the chair across the table from her. "You know, this isn't much of a day off for me…"

Jules rolled her eyes. "Alright well I have to be at work in two hours. Once I'm gone, you can feel free to sleep, eat junk, and… hang out in your boxers or whatever you do when I'm not around."

He smiled. "Excellent. Where should we start?"

She laughed at his newfound interest in the subject. "Hmm… well I suppose we could start with a date?"

"Like dinner and a movie?"

"Sam - "

"Ok ok, date… Well, when's the next time both our teams are off? We _are _inviting them, right?"

"Of course we are. Ok, day off…" Jules grabbed the calendar off the wall and began searching both of their schedules. "Second saturday in April… then… Next december."

Sam snorted. "Unless you want to wait a year I'm good with April."

Jules shook her head and sighed. "Four months doesn't give us a lot of time to plan a wedding…then again Nat seems to have it mostly planned anyways… do you know _where_ you want to get married?"

"Some place that's available the second saturday in April?" he smiled, trying to appear innocent, but straightened his face when Jules looked unimpressed. "I don't know, what kinds of places are there?"

Jules shuffled through some of the papers Natalie had provided her with. "Parks, hotels, churches, random event halls… Oh, and the brewery downtown although thats booked until 2014…"

Sam's jaw dropped. "You mean if we waited another two years we could get married where they make BEER? ! Damn you April."

Jules laughed. "Alright well since we're not waiting another two years and that was clearly your first choice, is there a second choice you might consider?"

He looked at the list she had handed him. "These all look fine. I just want to get married, I'm not that picky on where. Just not on some nude beach - there are some things we don't need to know about our coworkers." He giggled to himself, impressed with his own sense of humour and the fact that he had made Jules laugh too. "I'll make you a deal - you pick the place, and I'll plan the honeymoon."

"Oh yeah because that takes planning…" Jules laughed.

"It does when _you_ don't know where we're going," Sam smirked in amusement as she gave him a skeptical glare.

"I don't think I like that idea…"


	28. Partnered Up

**A/N: Alright so I must apologize for the stupidly long delay between postings here... I'm working on another fic (which may get posted later tonight, not sure if its ready yet...) and I've been trying hard to keep the two separate. You'll be happy to know I already have the next chapter of this one planned, and its not such a work related chapter, so it should be a little more... fun... maybe funny? We shall see...**

* * *

><p>Greg rubbed his head. "Alright Team one here's what we've got: approximately 7 armed subjects, 36 storey office-building, reports of shots fired. No word yet on how many injured, or exactly how many subjects, shots appear to be being fired at random. Team three is meeting us there. Spike, I want you in the truck with Donna keeping track of who is where and where they should be rest of us will be inside."<p>

"Copy," Spike confirmed as he began typing away, pulling up the blueprints for the building in question.

"Ok," Ed picked up where Greg had left off. "With only Spike in the truck we're left with an odd number in the building, so Raf with me, Nick with the Boss."

After a quick pause Jules broke in. "Where do you want me, Ed?"

Ed gave a reluctant exhale as Greg shot him a look and a nod confirming what they had previously agreed to. "We'll have to team up with team three so… You're with Sam."

Jules' eyes widened with shock. "Seriously?" If they couldn't be on the same team as a couple, then how were they allowed to work together on a call like this?

Greg nodded, then realized Jules couldn't see him from her position in the other SUV. "Each time a team is rearranged or gets new members we have a meeting deciding who would partner up with who, should the situation arise that two teams are required for the same call. There was some debate, but you two were partners for a long time and you're definitely the best match between the two teams."

"Oh," was all she said as the chatter picked up again and Spike began describing the layout while Ed directed the pairs on which stairwell to enter by.

* * *

><p>Sam and Jules took turns watching each other's backs as they ascended the stairs to their directed destination of the 25th floor, where the most recent round of shots was reportedly fired. They were accompanied by Todd and another member of team three, with the plan of going separate ways when they reached the floor in question in order to cover more ground. Ed and Raf were in the opposite stairwell and would be looking after the other side of the same floor. The other pairs were busying themselves with the previous reports linking shots to the 20th floor.<p>

Donna and Spike sat side by side in the command truck, typing frantically as they reviewed what little security footage was available in an effort to identify the subjects. Spike quickly pointed something out on the monitor in front of him before continuing to type as Donna updated the rest of the combined team.

"Looks like floors 20 through 30 belong to Albion Resources. Albion had issues with trespassing last week - a group of 7 found their way into their section of the building and simply wandered around, making the workers uncomfortable until security had them removed. We're reviewed the footage and the basic descriptions of our subjects seem to match this group."

"What's Albion do?" Sam questioned.

Ed answered before Donna had a chance. "They're into financial support - they back universities, help build up infrastructure and improve existing programs. Thing is, the schools they help out tend to introduce major tuition hikes the following school year." Raf raised and eyebrow at him. "Clarke is shopping for universities and apparently there are some student-run websites about it…"

"Thats right," Donna confirmed. "There have been several attempted class action law-suits, and even more protests. The most recent protests have been lead by the _Student Economic Initiative_, lead by one Tyler Dyson. Dyson dropped out of school last fall after an unsuccessful battle against late fees on his unpaid tuition, he blames Albion. Since then he's been leading all kinds of attacks on the company. This looks like our guys…"

"More than looks like," Spike added. "The subject got sloppy in avoiding the security camera - Dyson is definitely our guy."

Sam nodded. "Alright, let us know if you find anything else."

They continued up the stairs cautiously, relieved that they at least knew who they were dealing with now.

Greg's voice came over the comms. "So we've got a group of angry students, taking it out on a company. Why not take it out on the school itself?"

Todd from team three spoke up. "They could see it as more of a systemic issue - think that if they stop the source of the money then they can stop the increases in tuition."

Jules nodded. "Just try to keep the fact that tuition moves right along with inflation out of negotiations."

"Should be fun…" Ed muttered to himself.

Sam and Jules slowed their pace as they reached the 25th floor. Sam directed theother two SRU members in one direction, while he and Jules went the other.

They weaved through cubicles, determined to get eyes on the subjects before the subjects got eyes on them. As Jules gave the all clear from her view around a corner, the two continued down a long hallway to a series of executive offices. They took their positions outside the door before Jules opened it and Sam went in to see if there was anyone there.

He found a middle aged man, cowering under his desk. "Please don't hurt me!" he pleaded.

Sam lowered his weapon. "Its ok, we're here to help. What's your name?"

"Bill Albion. I'm the CEO."

Sam nodded. "Guys we've got what I'd consider a high risk civilian in here - the company's CEO Bill Albion."

"Got it Sam," Donna responded. "Uni's are on their way up to escort him out."

"Excellent. We're on our way off this floor, looks all clear." Jules caught his attention from the door, indicating that there was activity farther down the hall. "Wait, maybe not. We're going to keep looking up here, Albion is on his way out."

"Copy that."

"Todd, where are you guys?" Sam asked.

"Breakroom, east side of the building. Looks all clear in here."

Sam and Jules exchanged glances as this confirmed the movement Jules had seen was not that of their officers. "We've got movement on the west wall, looks like a boardroom."

"On our way."

The inside wall of the boardroom was all windows, making the officers use the cubicles for cover as they approached. From behind the temporary partitions, Jules peered through a crack to assess the situation.

"Boss, we've got 3 subjects, 4 hostages," she reported.

"Alright, the rest of us have secured the other 4 subjects and cleared the 20th floor. We're going to sweep our way up to you guys to confirm that theres no other subjects. You guys good to start negotiation?"

"Affirmative."

Sam looked around the offices. Getting a sierra shot wouldn't be difficult considering all the windows. The only real trouble was that they were somewhat outnumbered. He decided he and an officer from team three would take up sierra positions, and instructed Todd to cover Jules, who had implicitly called dibs on talking.

"Spike, we've got a camera in the boardroom. Can you ID the subjects?"

Spike nodded as he did a quick scan of the video being fed to him in the truck. "Thats Dyson, accompanied by Will Treble and Marshall Mann. Treble and Mann look like they're just followers - some minor trespassing charges, only ever with Dyson. He's definitely their leader, and they look like they're just along for the ride.

Jules nodded and moved a little closer. "Tyler Dyson, this is Jules Callaghan with the Police Strategic Response Unit. How's it going in there?"

Tyler whirled around, it was obvious he hadn't been expecting company. "Go away or we'll shoot them!"

Jules nudged Todd and the two moved a little closer. "I don't think you want to do that. If you do, then-"

"How the hell would YOU know what I want? !" Tyler screamed, before turning to his followers. "Keep your weapons up! Shoot them! They're the reason you can't afford school! They're they reason you make minimum wage!"

Jules took in the expressions on the followers faces. Breaking the followers wouldn't be difficult, they already looked like they regretted being there. And once the followers were out, Tyler would be a piece of cake to break.

* * *

><p>Sam smiled as he and Jules made their way out of HQ. "Good talk today."<p>

"Thanks. It wasn't difficult to see their point, tuition _is_ ridiculous. Seriously, we're never putting our kids through worrying about crap like that."

"Oh?" Sam grinned at her use of _our_.

Jules smiled slightly, realizing what she had said. He hadn't directly commented on it, so she didn't feel the need to reel that one back in, in spite of the blush she could feel coming over her cheeks. "College funds. Starting them from birth. By the time I got school paid for I was so unenthused with the whole experience that I honestly wanted to drop out."

Sam stopped as they reached their cars. "Seriously? You? _You_ wanted to drop out?"

Jules shrugged. "I worked all the time and still had no money, I rarely slept because I was so busy trying to keep up on my readings, and I hardly had a social life. It just didn't seem worth it."

Sam nodded. "College funds it is."


	29. Visitor

**A/N: Holy Moley its been a long time since I updated this story... I AM SO SORRY! Three bears kind of took hold of me for a while there, and I also started writing yet another Jam fic (not yet posted, will begin posting when it's essentially finished so I can keep a decent updating schedule). Anyways, this chapter doesn't exactly _end_, which you can go ahead and take as a strong indiction that there will be a sort of a second half of it... I didn't want a three thousand word chapter, plus I have to get ready for school before writing anymore and I wanted to be able to post! **

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><p>Jules fiddled with the faucet in her kitchen. It worked perfectly well, but she hated it. She had made a snap decision back in the day when she was renovating and had been kicking herself for it ever since. She kept thinking about replacing it, but it now seemed like a waste considering she would be moving soon. Her house had only been on the market a few weeks, but she had already had a few offers. Lousy ones, but offers nonetheless.<p>

Sick of looking at the ugly metal blob, she turned her attention to the dishwasher. She had the day off and Sam didn't, which she had taken as the perfect opportunity to do some much needed cleaning. Somewhere between the plates and the spoons her mind wandered back to her and Sam's conversation the night before.

_Sam mindlessly flipped through channels as Jules talked his ear off. _

_"So Natalie thinks we need some kind of … gift to give people, sort of like a loot bag or something. Apparently chocolates are the usual, which seems kind of dumb to me, but whatever. As for the centrepieces I don't know where to start…"_

_He nodded, half listening. "Maybe my mom can help you with that when she's here. And chocolates are nice, something to snack on on the way home. And I'll take care of any leftovers,"_ _he added with a wink. _

_"Yeah I'm sure you… wait, your mom is coming? WHEN?"_

_Sam shrugged, his eyes barely leaving the television. "Friday."_

_"THIS FRIDAY? Sam, today is wednesday!" _

How Sam could survive living his life on such short notice she would never understand. Somehow he had thought it was appropriate to give her only two days notice of the arrival of his mother. She wasn't sure the woman even liked her - she had, after all, been the one to dump Sam those few years ago, leaving him in the awkward position of breaking it to her on his trip home. That was only the base of her anxiety over meeting the woman. For some reason the idea of meeting Sam's parents, either one of them, scared her more than a subject with an automatic weapon.

She figured the General would be a tough one to meet - from what Sam had said he was less than supportive of most things Sam did, and Jules had long ago determined that that would likely extend to her. If it didn't yet, it certainly would the first time the General tried to pressure Sam back into the military in her presence. Part of her, not one she was particularly proud of, anxiously awaited that day, just so she could turn on the snark and tell him to get his head out of his ass and see what his son is actually capable of. Ultimately, she wasn't all that worried about having to impress the General since she knew Sam would always take her side over his.

His mother was a different story.

Sam talked about her like she was a saint, a selfless force to be reckoned with. From the sounds of things, she was more than just the complete opposite of his father. While the General was always described as a strict drill sergeant who couldn't leave work at work, Sam's mother was both a disciplinarian and a caregiver. Sam had told of how in his teen years, while he would taunt his father with various antics just to displease him, he wouldn't dare do a thing his mother would disapprove of.

The idea of meeting the woman terrified her, hence the cleaning fest she was currently having. She began wiping down the countertops, the cupboards, the wall behind the stove where Sam had splattered tomato sauce last night when she had asked him to give her a hand with dinner. With the worst of the kitchen behind her, she decided she would get changed out of her sweats before moving on to the vacuuming. She had just barely finished getting dressed and fixing her hair when there was a knock at the door.

Checking the clock she panicked a little - Team one, minus her of course, was on duty today, which took five possible visitors off the table. Sam had taken his car in to get his winter tires on, about two months late in Jules' mind, and therefore had no car to drive him to her house even if he wasn't still on shift.

Panic set in as she began to imagine the worse. The few times she and Sophie had been out for coffee, Sophie had described the fear she'd had as a newlywed when Ed was on shift. She'd told her about how she would have nightmares when he wasn't home about the officers at the door, the 'I'm sorry Mrs Lane' that would follow the news of her husband's death. Jules had never felt such anxiety.

Until now.

She took a deep breath and calmly walked down the stairs to the front door. Opening it, she saw a woman she'd never met before standing on her porch. She didn't have to look twice at the stranger to know exactly who she was. Those were definitely Sam's eyes staring back at her.

Unsure of how to begin, Jules blinked a few times before speaking. "Hello… Can I help you?"

The woman shifted in her spot, obviously nervous. "Hello, I'm Kathy Braddock, Sam's mum. You must be Jules," the woman replied, extending her hand.

Jules nodded, having just confirmed what she was almost certain of to begin with, and shook the extended hand. She must have been in some form of shock, because she then had a complete lapse in thought and couldn't figure out what to say next.

Sensing the younger woman's nervousness, Mrs. Braddock broke the silence. "Is Sam here?"

"No, actually, he's at work…" Jules told her, tilting her head slightly in confusion. Suddenly shock wore off and her manners came back to her. "Would you like to come in?" She wasn't sure why she asked, what she would even do if the woman accepted the invitation, but it seemed like the polite thing to say.

"Sure," Mrs Braddock said with a smile, turning to wave the cab Jules hadn't previously noticed. As the cab pulled away Jules led Mrs. Braddock into her house, and into the kitchen.

"Can I get you anything? Coffee, or, um I think I might have tea somewhere…" Jules began, searching through her cupboards.

"Oh, coffee would be nice. Thank you dear."

Jules poured two cups before placing them, along with milk and sugar, on the table where she had offered a seat to Mrs Braddock. There was a small silence as the two women prepared their coffees, while Jules fought the urge to flat out ask what the hell the woman was doing there.

"I suppose you're wondering what I'm doing here…" The woman began.

"A little…" Jules smiled, sipping her coffee.

"Well, I got off the plane to find that neither of my children were at the airport to meet me, but you know, they're busy people so I wasn't terribly upset about it. So I got myself a cab and went to Sam's apartment. No one answered when I knocked on the door, but I figured maybe Sam was on nights and was sleeping so I went and got the spare key from the Super. I let myself in, but there was no one there. I'm sorry to just show up here, but I found this on the coffee table," she said, pulling a home decorating magazine from her purse. She indicated the subscription address on the front of it. "I figured it belonged to you because well, I'm fairly certain you're the only Julianna that should be leaving magazines on my son's coffee table, and thought I would find Sam here."

Jules nodded, smiling at the woman's detective work. It impressed her a little that the woman could so easily find her. It also terrified her. "Did you get an earlier flight or something?"

Confused, Mrs Braddock shook her head. "No… why would I have?"

"Sam said you were getting here on Friday…"

The woman laughed. "Oh that is just so… Sam! I told him I was arriving on the 9th, a good four times I might add, but then he said something about it being Monday and I had to remind him it was only Sunday…"

Now Jules was laughing along with her. "He's been working 8 or 9 days in a row for the past few weeks, so I suppose he's just lost track of what day it is all together. I have to pick him up at work in a couple hours, you should come and surprise him."

"That sounds like a fun idea!" The woman practically cheered. "Now," she said, opening the magazine to a page Jules had dog eared, "Are you planning to do something like this in the new house?"


	30. Mama B

**A/N: Big guilty frown... I wrote this a long time ago... like, long enough that my laptop locked it from inactivity... and yet I didn't post it... not sure why... Also, apologies but the updates aren't likely to come much faster over the next month, although I have a tendency to write when I'm procrastinating important things, so we'll see. Basically, its the final month of university year 4, and I'm getting slammed over here... 5 more papers, 3 presentations, and perhaps I'll have a future with a job that allows me to write jammy love stories on nights and weekends... HA. A girl can dream, can't she?**

** In case anyone is confused, this chapter is a direct continuation of the previous one…**

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><p><em>"That sounds like a fun idea!" The woman practically cheered. "Now," she said, opening the magazine to a page Jules had dog eared, "Are you planning to do something like this in the new house?"<em>

Jules craned her neck to see the page in question. "Oh the kitchen? I was thinking I might do the backsplash like that, but that'll depend on whats already there."

Mrs Braddock nodded, flipping through a few more pages. "I was so excited when Sam told me you like to renovate. I myself am an interior decorating fiend, so anything involving paint colours or tiles is right up my alley. Have you two found a house yet? Sam hasn't said much about it."

Jules sighed. "We've looked at quite a few, but we haven't found one yet that we both like. We both want certain things, and finding a house with all of them is proving to be a bit of a challenge."

"Been there," she sympathized without looking up from the magazine. "When the General and I were looking for our first house we fought for days over the smallest things - he wanted to be on base, I didn't. Of course ultimately it didn't matter since he ended up accepting a new posting every 6 months so we just settled for what was available, but for a while there things were pretty tense."

Jules gave a small nod, making a mental note not to ask why Sam's mother referred to her husband as _The General_ and not simply by his name. She certainly hoped they didn't expect her to follow their lead and call Sam _The Sergeant_. If they did, they had another thing coming. "Well I suppose at least we aren't fighting over it. Its just that we're both disappointed every time a house lets us down."

"Ah well, when you find the right home you'll know." Mrs Braddock studied Jules as she cleared their mugs off the table. "Can I ask you something, Jules?"

Jules nearly dropped the mug she was cleaning at the serious tone in the woman's voice. She fought to keep her voice neutral, like she wasn't expecting the worst from the question. "Sure."

"Why are you so nervous? The way Sam described you I wasn't expecting the nervous type…"

"Oh." Jules said, unsure of how to begin. What was she supposed to say? _You show up at my house unannounced and I'm supposed to be cool with that?_ "Well," she sighed, figuring the only way out of this was to be honest with the woman. After all, the woman was going to be her mother-in-law, and there was really no sense in lying to her. "I suppose I'm just nervous that you might not like me…" she said quietly.

From the look on the woman's face Jules was sure she would have spat her coffee all over the table had she still been drinking it. Actually, had she slapped the woman she figured she could have gotten the same look from her. "Why would…" She paused as the protective mother side of her kicked in and an eyebrow shot up. "Is there a reason why I shouldn't like you?"

Jules sat down across the table from her. "I just thought that after what happened before… I figured you'd be mad or something," she mumbled. Somehow the way the question was asked it turned her into a shy teenager. "I mean, basically I chose my job over Sam and..."

The older woman tilted her head at Jules. "That? Oh Julianna, don't be foolish. Its like I told Sam back then: the heart wants what the heart wants, and if its meant to be it will be. No use getting upset about it."

_The heart wants what the heart wants_… Jules was beginning to wonder if the woman wrote greeting cards for a living.

"Anyway," the woman continued, "Like I told Sam, he doesn't want a woman who is willing to sacrifice who she is to be who she thinks he wants her to be. He loves you because you're apparently some kind of '_bad ass'_," she paused to make air quotes, with a mild difficulty that told Jules she likely hadn't ever done so before, "and he wouldn't be happy with you any other way."

It suddenly occurred to Jules that in the brief conversation in which Sam mentioned having to break the news of their failed relationship to is mother he never got around to telling her how the woman responded. She had assumed the woman had been angry, taking his side and telling him he could do better than _that girl_. Instead, Jules now fought to keep her jaw off the floor, surprised at the way the woman was so confident in _love_, so sure that everything was meant to be.

"Now, tell me, when will I be getting grandbabies?"

Jules laughed, the mood in the room instantly lightening. "Hmmm… Well, I'm thinking we should get married and get a house first, but once that's done I don't really see much point in waiting."

"Excellent. Speaking of the wedding, do you have a place picked out yet? What about a dress? Have you been shopping yet?" The woman grinned as she began drilling Jules with questions.

Jules did her best to answer the questions flying at her at light speed. Natalie was definitely her mother's daughter.

"… Now I know that Natalie is pushing chocolates, which is not surprising because my children have always had the world's largest sweet tooths, but thats so impersonal… Is there something that would better suit you two? Or maybe your guests?"

Jules practically snorted back a laugh as she thought of their guest list. "Honestly, with the number of cops going to this thing bullets might be the better option…"

Mrs Braddock gave a nervous laugh at the mention of bullets, although she was genuinely happy that Jules was relaxing enough to show her own sense of humour, warped as it may be. "Well, chocolates it is. Just try to keep Sam away from them."

Jules shrugged. She had been fairly neutral on the subject to begin with. She got up to check her phone as it buzzed on the counter top. "Speaking of Sam, he's actually off shift on time today. We should get going."

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><p><strong>AN: I feel the need to share that just after I wrote the part about Sam breaking the news of their breakup to his mom the episode in which that happens came on… I always forget just how sad Sam seems when he tells her that! :( My poor Sammy..**


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